


The Lone One

by mttrailblazer



Series: Rooster Teeth Fanfics [1]
Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: Eventual Smut, F/M, Fake AH Crew, Fluff and Angst, Gang Violence, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Light Angst, Not Beta Read, Other, Racism, Ryan's backstory, Ryan's soft, Serious Gang Violence, Sexual Content, Sexual Tension, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-15
Updated: 2018-02-27
Packaged: 2018-11-01 05:56:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 17
Words: 48,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10915713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mttrailblazer/pseuds/mttrailblazer
Summary: Abbi has been pulling her own heists since she was a kid all on her own.  She quits for awhile, just wanting to take a break from killing so many people and taking so much money.  Just as she gets back into it, she comes across the Vagabond and the Fake AH Crew.  When she sees that the Vagabond has the same passion as her, just to watch people die, she decides to show everyone that she still rules.  Little does she know that one of the people she becomes closest with is the person she's been fighting against all along.(Please read the tags.)(DISCONTINUED)





	1. Prologue

Abbi brushes her hair over her shoulders as she walks into the back office of the mechanic shop that she owns.  She grabs the note that’s hanging off of the board and reads it, frowning when she sees that one of her getaway cars was taken for a mission in the middle of the day.  She rolls her eyes and throws the note away, walking over to her desk to grab her keys.  She stares at the board while she takes the holster off of her thigh and puts it in the drawer.  She grabs her personal vertical shoulder holster out of the locked drawer and pulls it on, seeing another note that says that someone had to take some weaponry from the back room.  The blond girl sighs and rolls her eyes, grabbing her jacket and pulling it on.  Then she walks out of the garage, waving at Aren, who was working on some guy’s motorcycle.  He waves back and she walks to her own motorcycle.  

She pulls her helmet on, hiding her blond hair and making her seem like a guy because of her jacket being a size too big on her.  She drives over to this bank that seemed to have little protection.  She scopes the place out, looking for the best ways in and the best ways out.  She also decides that this is a job she'll do by herself.  Once she's done sizing the place up, she gets back on her bike and drives to her home, wanting to rest tonight after having worked so hard.  She parks her bike in the garage and pulls her helmet off, setting it on one of the handle bars.  Then she closes the garage door and walks inside, locking the garage door behind her.  She quickly showers and changes out of her work clothes, which consisted of a loose but fit t-shirt and a pair of skinny jeans that went well together.  Pulling on a sports bra and a pair of shorts, she grabs some leftover pasta from the kitchen and goes into the living room, turning the television on to check out the news.  

“This morning, there was a breaking and entering of the American Wide Bank before it had open.  The police were able to collect security footage of the act taking place.  This is mature footage, so we do advise viewer discretion," the news reporter says and she sits forward, the thought of them advising viewer discretion on only a bank robbery being odd to her.   

They start playing the video, and she sees a guy with a skull mask on carrying a gun around.  Then she sees two other guys, though she can't really see what their masks are, come in with duffel bags.  They just walk through the room while the guy with the skull mask looks at one of the accountants for a moment before firing his gun at him.  Her green eyes widen when she sees the accountant's head explode.  She quickly realizes who this guy is, only knowing one bank robber that killed the people around him when he did.  This is the Vagabond, who never shows his face or actually leaves of a sign of who he is.  This is the one they called the Mad King, who went crazy with rage when he wanted to and killed random people just for the fun of it.  People thought he was mad which called for the label "Mad King."  But Abbi smirks at the thought of the Vagabond.   

She is crazier, though she's never shown it.  She's murdered people for the fun of it before, going back and forth between heists and killing people.  She loved it, loved the rush she got from it.  It was her addiction that no one she's ever known shared with her.  Well, until recently. 

As signs of murder along with different robberies started popping up, she started paying more attention, because she knew it wasn’t her.  Then people put a name to him, just as they had put a name to when she was relevant.  He was the Vagabond, the one that never stayed in one place.  She was the Lone One, never having worked with anyone without murdering them before.  She guess she had to work on her reputation then, she had to make this next heist the biggest one Los Santos had ever seen.


	2. Dive In

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Abbi has her first meeting with someone very important and declares war on her rival.

Abbi frowns as she leans down on the floor and works on the getaway car that Maybelle had taken the day before.  She was furious that Maybelle had even been shot at while she was helping whoever she was helping.  Maybelle shouldn’t have even been seen while on site.

Abbi wants to lecture the girl over and over and over again, but Maybelle is sitting on the table behind her after having listened to her get mad at her once already.  The younger girl who was rather inexperienced had listened to her and taken it well, having apologizing profusely and promised she wouldn’t fuck up again.  Though Abbi knew it would happen at least once more -- because it had happened several times to her -- she let it go, knowing that Maybelle only had good intentions.

“Yo, Abbi!”  The blond girl turns back, running a hand through her hair, and looks at Aren.  “There’s a guy in the front looking for you.”

“Me specifically?” she asks, standing up and setting the welder she was using down.

“Said you’re the only one who can do what he’s wanting.”  She frowns, but despite her confusion, nods her head gratefully and walks into the front.  When she sees a guy there with sandy blond hair and baby blue eyes, she almost has a heart attack because god damn is he pretty.  But she ignores the feeling, knowing that with her night job, it’s best not to get involved with people. 

“Hey, how can I help you?” she asks, putting the grease rag she had on her shoulder in her back pocket.

“You’re Abigail?”  She nods, even though someone using her full name was pretty strange to her.

“That’d be me.”

“I heard you were the best for fixing cars with the issues that mine has,” he tells her, and she stares at him for a second, wondering if he’s talking about what she thinks he’s talking about.  Then she licks her lips and nods her head.

“Show me what I’m dealing with,” she requests, taking the hair tie that her hair had been slowing falling out of and fixing it into a tight bun so it couldn’t fall out.  He leads her out of the garage and she stares at the smashed hunk of metal in awe.  “Is that even a car?”  She can’t see any evidence that he’s there for the reason that she were fixing the car for Maybelle, so she can breathe easy for the time being.

“Believe it or not, yes.  A friend of mine is pretty reckless,” he tells her, and she knows that she’s reckless, but she doesn’t understand how someone could be  _ that  _ reckless.

“Is he alright?”

“Yeah, he’s exactly the same, although I sort of wish he wasn’t.”  They both chuckle before she walks around the car and inspects it.

“Are you sure that you don’t just want to buy a new car?” she asks, and he nods his head.

“I can’t.  This car is too important to my friend, and if I were to do that, it would be all out war,” he explains, and she nods her own head.

“Is there any modifications that you would like me to do to make it better?  That’s something that I offer anyone, even if I can’t tell what the model of their car is,” she offers, joking a bit at the end.

“Um, well . . .  Is bullet proof casing a possibility?”  She frowns when she sees that bullet damage to the car was something that she had to worry about.

“Yeah, I can do that.  Anything else you need?”  He furrows his eyebrows, thinking about it.

“No . . . No, that’ll be it.”  She nods her head and touches the metal of the car, just running her fingers over it to get a feel for the car.  The man -- whose name she still did not know -- just stares at her, admiring her lack of judgement when he asked her about the bullet proof casing.  He also admires the way her body looks, the curves and the way the skinny jeans complement those curves.  “It’s supposed to be a big SUV, like the ones someone would get if they had multiple children,” he blurts even though he has no idea why.

She turns to him and looks into his eyes, trying to figure out why he seemed like someone she would know.  But after a moment, she shakes it off, looking back at the car.  “I can see that.  I can work and get it back to working condition, but it’s going to take awhile.  It’s a bit of a mess,” she states, crossing her arms and stepping away from the car to step back into line with him.

“Yes, my friend and I understand that.  We both just want it to be back to normal, so it doesn’t bother us if it takes awhile,” he replies, and Abbi takes a deep breath while nodding her head.

“Great.  Right now, all I need from you is a name and a number,” she informs him, leading the tall man back inside.  He gets a good look at her ass as she walks behind the desk and grabs a contact card.  She hands it to him and looks back to see Aren and Maybelle both looking at her in shock.  She ignores them and turns back to the man, who is using the pen that was on the desk to write out what he needed to.

“It’s Ryan, and just call me if it’s only absolutely necessary,” he tells her, handing the card back.  She nods her head, understanding completely.

“Of course.  I call you when it’s ready.”

“Thank you, Abigail.”

“Of course.”

Late into the night, after she's sent the occurrence with the beautiful man she now knows as Ryan out of her mind, she walks into her garage and flips a light on, looking at the bike that she had kept in seemingly perfect condition since she had bought it.  She fixes her jacket so that the collar didn't mess with her neck, and she pulls her black helmet on, getting ready for the heist she was about to participate in.  Once she's on her bike and riding around, she follows all the driving laws as to not draw attention to herself and the rather large backpack that was on her back.  She drives past the bank she's fixing to heist and parks somewhere inconspicuous, right in the Subway parking lot nearly two blocks away from the bank.  There's nobody on the streets to notice her running as quickly as she can into the back alleyway of the bank.  She quickly picks the lock of the door and gets inside, shutting the door behind her.

Once she’s in, she grins widely, setting the backpack on the ground and opening it up.  She pulls the welder and the black spray paint can out of the bag.  Then she pulls one of the pistols from her shoulder holster and starts taking out different cameras.  She leaves only one of them on, the one that’s facing the white wall that’s by the booths.  She quickly uses the welder open the door in the back and grabs all the cash that she can fit in her backpack.  When she sees how big of a dent she made, she grins widely, leaving the welder by the thick safe door.  Then she walks over to the white wall and starts spray painting words over it.  Abbi grins as she takes a step back and looks at her work.

**_KILL THE MAD KING_ **

Then she looks at the camera that she had left going and shoots.  She makes sure to set off an alarm on the way out and gets out of dodge with all the money and her spray paint can, leaving her mark of the welder so that people will know it was the Lone One.


	3. A Bit Impulsive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Abbi gets confused, she gets impulsive.

The next morning, Abbi walks into the garage at six the next morning with a migraine from not getting enough sleep.  She groans when she walks into all the sound.  “Why is everyone here this fucking early?” she asks, seeing that Aren, Maybelle, Andy, Jarius, and Alex are all here.

“We all wanted to get started on that guy’s car because we want that money as soon as possible,” Aren explains while Abbi pulls her backpack -- the one she had the night before during the heist -- off of her back.  She nods her head, and since everybody wants to know while she’s so grumpy, they follow her to the break room.  Andy goes to ask her, but they all kind of freeze when she turns the television on and she immediately goes to the news.

Everybody frowns and just listens to what’s going on.  “This morning around one, there was a robbery at a bank in Los Santos.  The cameras were all taken out, except one, which the police have reviewed and willingly given us to show.  Viewer discretion is advised.”  Abbi crosses her arm over her chest and wants to see how they’re going to portray her this time.  They show the video of her looking at her handiwork and then turning to shoot the camera.  While they explain that they believe this is the return of the Lone One -- who had never been caught -- and a declaration of the war against the Fake AH Crew and the Vagabond, Abbi grins and turns to the backpack, going to take the money out of it.

“Abbi, you gotta tell us before you go out and do things like that.  What if you had died and none of us knew?” Alex scolds her, and Abbi rolls her eyes at the young adults all standing around her before turning to them.

“Listen, I get that you all are very inexperienced, but I’ve been doing this since before you were born.  I know what I’m doing.  There’s a reason they haven’t caught the Lone One yet,” she says before handing them all their own stack of cash.  Everyone’s eyes widen as they try to count it.  Andy finishes counting it first because not only is he the most spastic out of all of them, but he also has the fastest brain.

“That’s ten thousand dollars, easy,” he says, stammering over his words and running his hand through his naturally fiery red hair.  

“Yeah, and I’ve got about thirty more stacks in my bag,” she says smugly, and they look at her in shock.

“Why do you still work here if you can get cash like that?” Jarius asks, and Abbi turns back to the lot of them.  

“Because I only have taxes on the money that I  _ officially  _ bring in.  I don’t have to pay taxes on the millions of dollars that I have underneath the floorboard in my closet that no one knows about,” she explains, shrugging her shoulders and walking into the back office.  They follow her in there, leaving behind all the thought of the fact that she just waged a war on the Fake AH Crew.

“Wait, so why are you bringing the money here?” Alex questions, just curious because she doesn’t have any benefit from it.

“When you have  _ several _ million dollars under the floorboards, you lose space.  I can’t keep it up above the floorboards because then people will actually know that I rob banks-”  Someone walks into the front of the garage, causing the bell above the door to ring and everyone to freeze in their movements.

“Andy, go put this is glovebox of my car.  I’ll go take care of this,” the brunet man who was the oldest out of Abbi’s employees says, tossing his wad of cash at the ginger.  Everybody watches Aren walk out of the office for a moment before Andy turns and walks out of the back door in the office and Abbi turns to the rest of her employees.  

“Get out, I have to take care of some stuff.  And someone go tell Andy to come in through the front door,” Abbi commands, setting the backpack on the desk and going into the locked drawer in the desk.  Everybody scatters, doing what they were told to.  Abbi quickly gets into the secret room that only she could access in the office and hides all of the cash beneath one of the floorboards in there.  She looks around in the cavity of the floor and sees that there’s enough space to fit everything that’s in her closet in there with a little more.  She decides that she’ll slowly bring it all in and hide it under there.

Just after she’s shut the secret room and is walking back to her desk, Aren walks into the room.  “Yo, boss, that guy from yesterday is here and he’s got some friends.”  She frowns, standing there in confusion for a moment before shaking the confusion off and walking out of the office to the front of the garage.

“Hey, Abigail,” the man from the day before -- Ryan -- greets.

“Hey, what’s up today?” she inquires, rolling her shoulders.  “It’s a bit early to be out and about, don’t ya think?” she jokes, and he smiles.

“Yeah, you could say that . . . Um, no, just got a day full of business that I gotta get a headstart on,” he says, and she tries not to pay attention to the two guys behind him that are trying to intimidate her with their arms covered in tattoos and their dark eyes.  But she definitely can’t be intimidated by all the video game characters one of the guys has on his arms.  “Um, ignore those two.  I’d like to pay part of my fee.”  She frowns because she actually hasn’t placed a number on anything, neither have her employees.

“We haven't placed a price on anything yet,” she tells them while Andy and Jarius walk through straight into the back of the garage. 

“Well, then, I'll give you a starting point.  Five hundred thousand,” he tells her, and she can hear everybody in back stop doing what they're doing because, hell, that was way more than the stack of cash that she had just handed each of them. 

But Abbi keeps a straight face and looks at him.  “That's a high starting point.”  And she can tell by the look on his face that he can see what she's implying. 

“You're telling me that you don't want all that money?”  She purses her lips. 

“No, of course not.  I'm just pointing it out,” she states, shrugging her shoulders.  So he smiles and pulls a stack of cash out of his jacket.  Her eyes don't widen because she's paid for things like that before.  But it does worry her because  _ she  _ pays for things like that. 

As she's taking it and grabbing her receipt book, for some reason not feeling the need to count, a gunshot goes off and the three men turn, getting ready to defend.  She just rolls her green eyes and looks up to the heavens like she's praying that God will take her dumb employees away.  “Put the safety on and put my gun away!” she shouts, waiting for Andy’s apology.  But instead she hears Alex’s, and she knows that she's in for a long day today.  “I apologize for that.  My employees are idiots.”  This makes Ryan laugh and the two men behind him break into smiles.  “Alright, do you want a receipt?” 

“Uh, no.”  She nods her head.  “Thank you, Abigail.”

“Anytime.”  She stares at them as they walk out. 

The shorter man behind Ryan -- the one with the auburn hair and video game characters permanently inked on his arms -- speaks up.  “You like her.”  Ryan can't help but roll his eyes as they walk to the other one’s car. 

“You're full of shit, Michael.”

“Stop being immature,” the other one, Geoff, commands, being their boss.  Ryan sighs as he gets in the passenger seat of the car. 

“Why does he always get the front?” Michael whines. 

“Get in the car, you're starting to sound like Gavin,” Geoff shouts. 

In unison, Michael and Ryan imitate Gavin, “But Micoo.”  Geoff bursts out laughing as they head home. 

Back inside the garage, Abbi’s there counting the money and thinking about who Ryan really is.  She feels like she should know him, like she should be threatened by him.  But she knows that it's the Lone One that should be threatened, and she's not the least bit worried about it.

Once she's done counting cash and is sure that all the money he said was there is there, she walks back into the actual garage.  “I need someone to hurry up and get me a car,” she commands, and everyone looks at her. 

“We have a ton of money.  What are you going to do?” Alex asks, being the one to care for her most. 

“Don't worry about it.  I need a car that's not any of ours,” Abbi replies, fixing her jacket and going to put the money in the back register. 

“We'll get it done,” Andy calls and Abbi nods her head gladly. 

“I need it done as soon as possible,” she calls before shutting the office door and popping the secret room back open.  She grabs one of the guns out and sets it behind the desk so that when someone comes into to tell her about the car, they don't see it. 

And soon enough someone does.  Aren pops his head in and smiles at her.  “It's around back.”

“Alright, thank you guys.”  He nods his head. 

And she quickly finds a bank to rob and kill people at, taking her helmet with her so that no one can see her face.  She walks into the bank, immediately raising her gun and shooting.  Everyone lowers themselves onto the floor as she walks towards one of the booths.  She sets a backpack down, and the employee knows what she's asking for, so they get on it.  Someone gets brave and stands up, so she just easily shoots them.  

God, she had missed this, having been on a murder break for so long.  She had missed the rush, the lightness in her bones.

While several employees are pulling as much money as they can out, she grabs the bag and pulls the welder out and setting it on the counter.  “It's the Lone One,” someone screams, so she turns and shoots them, listening to all the gasps.  She sets the bag back on the counter before grabbing the welder and walking around, leaving her gun hanging on her back.  They all stay down, knowing that if they stand up to fight whom they think is a him, he'll kill them.  And luckily for her, there's someone stupid enough to fight her. 

She grabs her by the collar and pushes the welder into her face, catching her face and hair on fire.  The random girl falls to the floor and screams while trying to put her hair out.  After a moment, Abbi decides to put her out of her misery and shoots in the head, not caring who sees the brains everywhere.  “We're done,” one of the employees call.  So she walks back to the booths and grabs her bag.  Then she sets her welder down and walks out the back, running back to the car as quickly as she can.  Once she’s in, she tosses the bag into the passenger seat and pulls her helmet off, tossing it in the back. 

Taking a deep breath and feeling lucky that she left the car running, she puts it in drive and gets out of there.  She just barely evades being caught and heads back to the garage, slowing down after a little bit to not draw attention to herself.  Once she’s there, she sits in the car for a second before pulling the gun that had not so safely been tucked behind her out from behind her and turning the safety on.  Rubbing her green eyes, she walks inside, still feeling the high from what had happened.  But then she notices that there’s blood on her jacket, so she sighs and runs into the garage to get everything in order.  She passes through the break room to get to the laundry room they had in case someone had to stay there overnight, and she sees that her employees are watching the live feed of the crime scene on the television.  She pays them no mind and they don’t even hear her walk in, so she just walks into the laundry room and works on her jacket.  

Soon enough, her employees go back to work, so she can pass through the break room without someone noticing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, and any constructive criticism is welcome. xx


	4. You're Excused

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While the Lone One is closed off, Abbi can be read like an open magazine.

“WHO IS HE?” Ryan roars as he and his friends all sit in Geoff’s apartment and he throws the table across the room.

“Ryan-” his friend Gavin -- the one who had totally wrecked his car, who had so many broken bones that left them wondering how he was alive -- goes to speak up.

But Ryan cuts him off.  “WHY IS HE HERE ALL OF THE SUDDEN?” 

And this time, Geoff speaks up, knowing that Ryan won’t cut him off.  “Ryan, we need to calm down.  The only way to really think this through is calmly.  Now I’m all about taking this guy out, but we need to take a moment.”  Ryan turns to him and just rants a little quieter.

“He thinks he can take this from us, from  _ me _ .  Who does he think he is?  I should kill everyone and see how he likes it.”

“Ryan, you can’t do that.  There’s a large possibility that you’ll be caught,” Gavin speaks up, and everybody turns to him, including Michael and the other two Jack and Ray.  “Now, I’m pretty reckless, but this isn’t worth getting caught over.  If you get caught, then there’s no way that we’ll take him out,” he speaks with his British accent, flubbing some words.  No one cares enough to notice.

“If he can just kill people like that, why can’t I?” Ryan mutters, turning the the window that looked over throughout all of the city.  He runs a hand through his sandy blond hair as he looks at the moon and tries to make a decision about what he should do.

“We should look throughout his pattern and see if we can figure out what we’re doing there,” Michael suggests, and Ryan turns back to him with a smile on his face.

“Yeah, that’s good.”

That morning, on her way to work, Abbi decides that she’ll have to wait for at least a few days before she goes on another heist to make sure she isn’t suspicious.  She sighs, wanting to get back on her high, but she knows she can’t because then she’d be caught and it’d be fucked.  She sighs again as she gets to the garage, pulling in and finding that everyone’s there early again.  Grimacing and hunching her shoulders, she gets off her bike and walks inside, a little unhappy that she can’t get any peace anywhere. 

The couple that lived in the house beside hers was fighting throughout the whole night.  She couldn’t get any sleep, and she was on the verge of walking over there and telling them to shut up.  But that wasn’t Abbi Robertson; that was the calm side of the Lone One, and she didn’t like to show her neighbors the Lone One.

So, she’s pretty sure she has reason to be a little grumpy as she walks into the garage and Eminem’s playing loudly from where they’re working on the cars.  But she doesn’t complain because she also understands that they’re doing their job and if that gets the work done, she understands the reason behind it.  “Good morning,  _ Abigail _ ,” Alex greets her.  She narrows her eyes at the young girl who’s giggling as she walks into the office.

Then she understands as she stumbles upon Ryan and a woman who looks just a little bit younger than him.  “Good morning, Ryan, Ryan’s friend.  How are you?  How can I help you?” she says, slipping into her business woman mode.  Ryan smiles at her as she takes her backpack full of money off of her back and sits down behind her desk.

“This is my friend, Jacquilynn, we call her Jack.  She needs her car fixed up,” Ryan states.

“What condition is it in?  I don’t know if we handle very much with what we have from your other friend,” Abbi jokes, and Jack and Ryan chuckle.

“Yes, Gavin’s car is a mess,” Jack states, running her hand through her ginger hair.  

“Gavin himself is a mess,” Ryan adds, and the two chuckle with each other.

“Anyway, it’s in much better condition than Gavin’s.  The only things that are wrong with it are my brakes need to be fixed and there are a few dents that are obvious that I would like to get out,” Jack explains to Abbi, and she smiles, standing up.

“Let’s go check this car,” she declares, and the other two stand up and follow her out of the office.  Her employees all stop what they’re doing for a second as she leads Jack and Ryan out to the parking lot.  “Andy, I need you on this one,” she calls, and he runs to catch up with her.  “Andy likes fixing both brakes and dents.  He likes several other things, that’s why he’s helping with Gavin’s car.  He’s got the quickest mind and gets ideas rather quickly,” Abbi explains to Ryan and Jack, and the two nod their heads in interest.  “He does have a bit of speech impediment because of it though.”

“It’s more of a brain impediment,” Andy jokes, and she looks at the real ginger with a tight smile to stop herself from laughing.  “Sorry,” he says with his own tight smile and looks down at the ground as they stop at Jack’s car.  Abbi smiles a wide smile and shakes her head, turning to look at the car.  

“Andy, since you are going to work on the car, get a good look at what you’re working with and talk to Jack.”  Andy nods his head and walks around the car with Jack, just speaking with her to try and get a feel.  “So, your girlfriend’s pretty,” she tells Ryan, folding her hands behind her back, licking her lips, and refusing to look at him. 

“Actually, she’s my boss’ girlfriend.”  That makes Abbi’s head spin towards him and she catches sight of his big grin.

“I’m sorry,” she apologizes, actually feeling really bad.

“Don’t apologize.  It’s okay.  Everyone gets jealous sometime.”  Abbi raises her eyebrows at him and his stupid attractive smirk.

“Sorry?”

“You were jealous of Jack.  You thought that I was attractive, and when you thought that Jack was my girlfriend, you were a little unhappy with the fact that you couldn’t get your hands on me,” he tells her, reading her like an open magazine.  She glares at him for a moment before he speaks up again, “I don’t think I’m wrong, so I’m not going to apologize.”  She flares her nostrils as she turns back to the two talking about the car in front of all of them.  There’s a tense silence between Ryan and her for a moment.

And then, she says, “You’re right.”  Out of the corner of her eye, she can see Ryan’s grin, and the bad side of her is so tempted to punch it off of his face.  But the good side of her is so tempted to kiss it.

“Alright, I think either Aren or I can handle this one easily,” Andy informs her as he and Jack walk back to stand with them.

“Sounds good.  How much do you think it’ll cost?” Abbi asks, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Twenty-five even.”  Her eyes widen.

“G?”

“No, sorry, hundo.”  Her eyes contract and she thinks about it for a second before nodding her head.

“Does that sound good to you?” she asks Jack, who smiles and nods her head.  “Great, you can pay it whenever you’d like while we’re working on the car, just as long as you pay it.”

“Right, sounds good.”  Abbi smiles and leads them back inside.

She tells Andy, “Get Jarius to get that inside and either you or Aren can get started on it.”  Andy nods and walks away, so she turns to Ryan and Jack.  “Anything else I can help you folks with?” 

“No, I think that’ll be it,” Jack answers, and Ryan and Abbi make eye contact, silently making an alliance.  Then he nods and she smiles.

“Alright, well, I guess I’ll be seeing you around.”  They both nod as they turn and go to walk out.  Jack gets out, but Ryan turns back and looks at Abbi.  He nods her head, and she nods her head in response.  And then he’s gone.


	5. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (and Women)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Abbi starts pulling together the resources she needs.

Abbi sits on her couch the next Saturday evening, just eating cereal and watching the news.  She’ll admit, she didn’t use her money from her runs for food.  Most of the time, she used it for clothing or things to complement the aesthetic going on in her house.  She used the legitimate money that she got from her job for food and actual necessities.  She didn’t want to seem too well off compared to her neighbors.  Or her employees.

She’s pulled out of her thoughts when something about a gang is mentioned on the television.  She grabs the remote and turns it up, paying closer attention to it.  “Another bank has been robbed in Los Santos by the second most wanted man, the Vagabond.  Several were left dead in his trails, and this message was left.”  They put an image on the screen, and Abbi slowly gets chills as she reads the message that was obviously left in someone’s blood.

**_Beware, Lone One_ **

She flinches when someone starts beating on her door.  Leaving the television on as to not let whoever was at the door know that she’s there, she grabs the gun off of the table and tiptoes to the door.  She checks through the peephole, frowning when she sees Alex basically carrying an almost unconscious Maybelle and looking around.  Abbi pulls the door open and lets them in.  “Holy shit, what’s going on?” she asks, shutting the door behind them and shutting the blinds as Alex carries Maybelle into the dining room and lays her on the table.

“Maybelle wanted to take a stab at trying to rob a bank and the security guard shot her,” Alex informs her, ripping Maybelle’s shirt open and revealing the really bad bullet wound.

“Holy crap.  What were you guys thinking?” Abbi shouts, going into the kitchen to get her medical kit.

“Obviously she wasn’t.  I was just going to be her getaway car!” Alex shouts back while the unnaturally green haired girl lying on the table wakes up for a moment.  Then she looks down at her abdomen and starts screaming.  Alex immediately goes to comfort her while Abbi runs back into the room.  The younger of the two healthy girls says, “Maybelle, it’s going to be okay, you gotta calm down.”  Maybelle stares at her for a second before passing out again.

Yanking her kit open and pulling a big pair of tweezers out, Abbi asks Alex, “You went to medical school, right?”

The African American girl answers hesitantly, “Yeah, why?”

“You know how to perform surgery on someone?” Abbi inquires, stopping for a moment to look at Alex.

“Abbi, I can’t do that.”

“If you don’t, you’re about to learn how to,” Abbi tells her, shoving the tweezers into her hand.  Alex starts freaking out while Abbi continues searching through her box of medical items.  “Luckily, the bullet didn’t go in too far.”

“Abbi, I can’t-”

Abbi cuts her off angrily, “Cut the shit, Alex.  I know you can, so get the job done.”  Alex stares at her in shock for a moment before she turns to Maybelle.  She takes a deep breath before properly assessing the situation.

“The jacket she’s wearing must have slowed the bullet down a bit.  I can see through all the different spots that the bullet broke up into that all the shards are shallow,” Alex speaks to herself as she starts digging for the bullet shards in Maybelle’s abdomen.

“She must’ve already gone through shock and can really feel the pain now,” Abbi mumbles while grabbing her supplies to stitch Maybelle up.  She watches Alex perform well under pressure for a moment before adding, “When you’re done, I need you go into the refrigerator I have downstairs and grab an IV bag.”

“She doesn’t need a blood transfusion,” Alex replies.

“No, but after this, she’ll need rehydration,” Abbi explains, laying all the items that she’ll need out.

“Right.”  Alex quickly gets done and runs out of the room, going into the basement.  The ability to work with free space gets Abbi started.  She starts stitching Maybelle up, and since there’s no one breathing heavily, she listens in on the news that was still playing on her television.

“You’d think they’d have their big show down already.”

“Yeah, but if you can remember, the Lone One has always been really sneaky.”

“I bet that the Lone One will win this one.”

“No, the Vagabond replaced him, remember?”

“Yeah, but the Lone One’s coming back to show him who’s boss.”  Abbi chuckles at the fact that they’re actually discussing this on live television and shakes her head.  She focuses back on Maybelle as Alex runs into the room with an IV bag in her hand.

Abbi quickly explains to her, “There’s a tube for it in the box.  You know how to find her vein?”

“Of course I do.”  The blond girl smiles as one of the girls that is like her child gets into her element.

“Why’d you ever drop out of medical school?” she asks, only wondering.

“Do you know how much that shit costs?” Alex responds.

Abbi pauses for a moment to joke, “See, I’m rolling in millions, so . . .”  Alex laughs and shakes her head, grabbing Maybelle’s arm and finding her vein quickly.

They’re silent for a little bit, just working on Maybelle and listening to the news.  This gets the topic of Abbi’s homicidal tendencies running in the younger woman’s head, so she questions, “What do you think you’re going to do about this guy?”

“I have no idea.  I might have to have that ‘epic showdown’ they’re talking about.  That might be the only real way to get rid of him,” she answers, just speaking what she had been thinking in the last few moments.

Alex frowns at the thought of her having to go to war like that and says, “What if he gets rid of you instead?”  Abbi looks up at her and knows that she’s just asking because she wants her to consider all of the risks.

“Then I’ll be dead and he’ll truly be the Mad King.”  Alex lets out a little huff at the sound of it, but Abbi knows it’s reality and it’s something everyone has to face.

Later on, when they’re sure that Maybelle is alright and she’s resting in Abbi’s bedroom, Alex and Abbi are sitting on the couch just watching some shit movie that was on television.  Alex is laughing at all the dumb jokes, and Abbi is just chuckling at the stuff that happens to go over Alex’s head.  After a while, what Abbi needs to do comes to her, and she sighs.  Alex frowns and asks, “What’s wrong?”

“I think I have to pull together a team of remarkable people and _reveal_ that I’ve really been several people just doing different things the whole time,” Abbi answers, and Alex frowns.

“But you’ll lose your reputation.”

“I am fully aware.”

So, the next morning while all her employees are working on Ryan and Jack’s cars, she researches people.  She spends hours, and she just can’t find anyone.  Maybelle’s helping her a little since it’s best that she doesn’t work.  She’s sitting on the backside of her desk playing with one of Abbi’s throwing knives and just throwing out characteristics that someone in Abbi’s crew should have.  Abbi admittedly agrees with some of them, but some of them are just ridiculous.  Like “they must be friendly” is terrible.

And then she finds the first person she would even consider letting into the team.  “Have you ever worked with somebody named Dollface?” she asks Maybelle, and the young girl looks up at her with wide brown eyes.

Sitting forward in her chair, she answers, “No, but she has a great reputation.  She is _thee_ Harley Quinn.  She is terrifying, and I’m her biggest fan.”  Abbi chuckles and leans back in her chair, quickly gathering as much information as she can in five minutes.  She stands up and walks over to her door. 

Pulling it up and leaning against the doorway, she calls, “Andy!  I need you!”  She hears several things clatter and can only guess that Andy’s really jittery today.  Shaking her head and walking back to her desk, she chuckles at her chaotic employee, sits down, and prints out all the information she’s gathered on Dollface.

The lanky redhead man stumbles into the office looking rather disheveled.  “You alright?” Maybelle asks with a little laughter evident in her voice.  Andy finally stops stumbling and looks at her with a loopy grin on his face.

“Sit down, asshole,” Abbi commands, and he does so, putting his feet up on the arm of Maybelle’s chair.  Maybelle rolls her eyes and shoves them off.

“Stop being such a bitch,” Andy snarls.

“You stop being a bitch,” Maybelle growls back.

Abbi rolls her eyes and commands in a firm voice, “Both of you, stop.”  They sigh and nod their heads.  “Now, Andy, I need you on what I’m about to do next.  Maybelle will be our getaway car.”

Maybelle whines, “Why do I always have to be the getaway car?”

“Because you got shot last night, do you not remember that?”  Maybelle frowns and looks down at the sound of Abbi’s angry voice.  The older woman sighs and shakes her head.  “Anyway, Andy, I’m going to need you to dress up as the Lone One, same with you, Maybelle.”

“Wait, we’re not going to hurt anyone, are we?” Andy asks with fear in his brown eyes.

“You guys shouldn’t be pushed to that.  But I need to mislead people,” Abbi explains, “I’m going to make contact with Dollface, or Meg Turney, or whatever her name is.  I want her on my team, and hopefully, she’ll get me some other people.  We just need to strike a deal with her first.”

Maybelle frowns, “How are you going to make contact with her?”

“You don’t worry about that part.  You guys just worry about getting those clothes together.”

“Will it be today?” Andy asks, grabbing another one of Abbi’s throwing knives and playing with it just like Maybelle was.

“No, but most likely in the next week.  I’ll let you guys know.”  Andy nods and stands up, going to leave the room.  “Oh, and Andy.”  He turns back to look at Abbi.  “I’ll get you a mask.”

“Oh, can it look like the Vagabond?” he says excitedly.  She just gives him a look, and he mutters, “Sorry,” before walking out.  Maybelle chuckles as he closes the door behind him.

Abbi states, “I might actually get him a face mask that is similar to the Vagabond’s.”  Maybelle bursts out laughing at Abbi’s embarrassment while she starts typing out an email to Dollface.

It’s two days later that they actually decide to meet up, and two hours before she and Meg really need to meet, she decides to take her two employees out to lunch.  “Whoa, this place is fancy,” Andy states as they all walk up to the restaurant and Abbi fixes her suit jacket.  “Is where we’re meeting her?” he questions, and Maybelle gives him this irritated look while Abbi just smiles and shakes her head.

“No, Maybelle wouldn’t be coming in with us,” she tells him patiently.

Maybelle makes sure to mutter under her breath, “Idiot.”  As they walk into the restaurant, both Abbi and Andy give her a glare before turning back to face in front of them.  Abbi quickly brushes her blonde hair over her shoulders and stands in front of the host booth.  Finally, a hostess walks up with a breathless look on her face.

“Sorry, we’re understaffed today.  Um, do you have a reservation with us?” she asks, and Abbi smiles understandingly.

“Yes, the name is Robertson,” she informs the frazzled woman, who nods and puts the information into the computer.  Then she grabs four menus and leads them to a really decent table with a pretty view of the city.  When she goes to place the fourth menu, she stops and looks at Abbi.  “Fourth one dropped out, so we don’t need that.”  The hostess nods her head.

“Alright, your waiter’s name is Trevor, he’ll be with you in a moment.”  They all nod their heads as she walks away and Abbi taps on the table to the beat of the jazz music that’s playing faintly throughout the whole restaurant.

“Get the jazz going,” Maybelle giggles, and Abbi shakes her head in amusement.

“So, when do we actually meet the chick?” Andy asks, and Abbi looks at him.

“In like two hours.  There’s this warehouse downtown that she works from.”

That makes Maybelle furrow her eyebrows, “How does she keep herself hidden?”  When Abbi doesn’t even open her mouth to respond, Maybelle frowns, and then their waiter is there.

“Hey, I’m Trevor, I’ll be your waiter, let’s start out with drinks.  How can I help you guys?”  While Maybelle and Andy are ordering their drinks, Abbi quickly grabs a hundred-dollar bill out of her purse and discreetly holds it up to Trevor.  The brunette stares down at her for a moment before taking it from her.

“I’ll take a Sam Adams Boston Lager, and if you want a good job, come to my garage in the next two days.”  They stare at each other for a moment before he nods his head and walks away.

“What was that about?” Maybelle questions and Abbi just shrugs her shoulders.  They get back to their conversation about Meg, and all of them get into the conversation, not paying attention to what’s going on around them.

At the end of their lunch, Ryan, Jack, Geoff, Michael, Ray, and Gavin come into the restaurant, having their own reservation for lunch.  While they’re ordering their food, Ryan almost gasps at the sight of Abigail sitting beside the employee that had helped Jack with her car.  He honestly didn’t expect to find her in an expensive restaurant with an expensive suit on and what looks like expensive beer in her hand.

The employee – Andy, he thinks – has a leather jacket on along with black jeans.  It almost reminds Ryan of the Lone One, but he thinks nothing of it.  He just quickly moves onto the girl that’s sitting across from them.  She’s got long brown curls that are tied back into a ponytail and she’s dressed in a black leather jacket and olive-green jeans that, again, almost reminds Ryan of the Lone One.

The he moves back to Abigail, who is laughing about something the fiery redhead had said.  He can’t even try to deny that she looks beautiful when she laughs.  She’s so beautiful when she’s just sitting there.  The suit and the jewelry she’s wearing makes it even better.

“Quit drooling over Abbi and order your food, you idiot,” Geoff says, and Ryan looks over and realizes that their waitress is back.

“Oh, sorry, um . . .”  He trails off while all of his friends laugh at him.  The waitress just smiles and does her job – waits on him.  He tells her his order and she walks away.

“You’re an idiot,” Gavin tells him, and they all laugh again.

“Shut up, she’s beautiful.”  While he jumps into an argument about where his focus should be, he misses the trio noticing him and his group.

“Is that not . . .”  Andy trails off when he hears Abbi clear her throat.

“They’ve already noticed us.  Ignore them,” she tells him, keeping her eyes on her nails.

“How’d you . . .  You haven’t even . . .”

She cuts Maybelle off, “Peripheral vision.  Plus . . .”  She pauses to make eye contact with Maybelle, “Well, I’m a murderer, bank robber, and business woman.  I’ve got to be observant.”  Andy and Maybelle both hum in understanding.

Then Trevor comes back and sets her card and receipt down along with a decent burner phone.  “Thank you,” Maybelle and Andy chorus while Abbi just smiles and nods at him.

“Hopefully I’ll be seeing you in the next few days.”

He gives him a small, amused smile and says, “Hmm, have a good day.”  Abbi grins as he walks away, and the trio stands up.

“I think I have another one of our remarkable people on board,” she murmurs, buttoning her suit jacket and leading the two toward the exit.

Maybelle sarcastically replies, “Because a waiter is surely _remarkable_.”  Abbi stops and turns to give her a stern look right before they get to Ryan’s table.  Then she nods to get Maybelle and Andy to walk in front of her.  They do so, and Abbi makes eye contact with Ryan while she walks past him.  She winks at him and then walks past him, smirking when she knows that he’s watching her as she leaves.

Then they start heading to the warehouse that they’re going to meet Meg in.  On the way there, Abbi turns and goes to hand Andy the mask.  “This is the mask, I want it back as soon as we’re done here.”  Andy stops messing with his uncomfortable shoulder holsters and takes the mask from her, looking at it in interest.  He starts messing with it, and Abbi watches him, fully prepared to stop him if he goes to break it.  And immediately, he does.  “Andy!” she exclaims.  He takes his hands off of it and looks up at her in shock.  “Give it here.”  He does so, and she shows him the part he almost had broken.  “Don’t mess with this.  Don’t mess with _it_ at all.  When we get there, just put it on your face.”  He nods his head bashfully and gently takes it back from her.

Then they get to the warehouse they’ve decided to meet at and Maybelle drops them off.  Andy quickly pulls the mask on, gets out, and helps Abbi out.  “Hey, you’ve got to be scary until I drop the bomb.  All you do is glare at her until I let her know who I actually am.”  He nods his head, and Maybelle leans forward in her seat to look at them.

“Am I all set?”

“Yeah, drive around the block until I send a text,” Abbi tells her, and she nods her head before driving away.  Abbi looks at Andy as she buttons her suit jacket, and then she looks down at herself.  “I look like a lawyer, somewhat, right?”  Andy smiles, even though Abbi can’t see it, and nods his head.  “Remember, don’t say anything until I tell you to pull the mask off.”  Andy quickly gets into his intimidating act and walks behind her as she confidently strides into the warehouse. 

“Ah, I didn’t realize that he would be bringing someone with him,” Dollface, or Meg Turney as Abbi’s come to recognize her, states, and all Abbi can do is chuckle.

“Well, _he’s_ not one for talking.”  Meg doesn’t pick up on her sarcasm or her juxtaposition, just because she isn’t really aware of who either of them are.  Then Abbi quickly assesses the room around them and realizes that they’re several boxes of just money surrounding them and a table in the middle of it all.  Abbi also takes notice of how all the stacks of cash are just several twenty-dollar bills just stacked up.

“So, you’re his negotiator,” Meg states, and Abbi turns back to the beautiful brunette girl who looked pretty similar to Maybelle.

“You could say that.  I’m Abigail Robertson,” the older woman introduces herself, holding her hand out for Meg to shake.  The hazel eyed girl almost glares at her hand for a moment before placing her own in it and shaking.  Abbi grins when she sees that this girl has a strong grip, and she decides that she likes her.

“Meg Turney.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Miss Turney.”  Meg nods in agreement and lets go of Abbi’s hand.  She turns to Andy – who she thinks is the Lone One – and Andy nods his head because he’s not going to shake her head.  She nods her head in response.

Then she turns back to Abbi and requests, “Please sit.  I’m assuming he won’t sit.” 

While the two women sit, Abbi nods her head.  “You’d assume correctly.”

“So, how can I help you?”  Abbi unbuttons her suit jacket and sighs, leaning back in her chair.

“You’ve seen the news about my friend here and the Vagabond.”  Meg nods.  “Well, my friend would like to put together a group of amazing people to work with him to take him and if need be his friends out.”

“And what do I have to do with it?”

“Well, you were the first that my friend thought of.  You have a reputation that has caught his attention, and we’ve seen examples of your work,” Abbi explains, never breaking eye contact with the girl. 

“What do I get from doing this?”

“Millions of dollars, the reputation of having gotten rid of the Fake AH Crew, and a seat next to the throne,” Abbi lists.  Meg thinks about it for a second before releasing her breath that she seemed to be holding in.

Looking back and forth between Abbi and Andy, she inquires, “Will I get to see the Lone One’s face?”  Abbi smiles at the question.

“Every time you look at me, you’re looking at it.”  Meg’s hazel eyes widen vastly while Andy pulls the mask off.

“Goddamn, it was getting sweaty in there.  Why’d you have to get plastic?”  Abbi raises her eyebrows and looks up at Andy.  “Why not metal?”

“It didn’t matter if it was plastic or metal.  You were gonna sweat anyway,” she replies while Meg tries to process the situation.  “By the way, you get to sterilize that when we get back.  I’m not putting that on when it’s covered in your sweat.”  Andy rolls his eyes and nods his head.  Then Abbi looks at Meg again and sees that she’s going to have to use the burner phone.

So, she stands up, buttons her suit jacket, and places the burner phone on the table in between them.  Meg looks at it for a second before looking up at her.  She explains, “I’ll give you some time to think about it.  This burner phone has my number and my number only in it.  It works for only three days, so if you could let me know, that would be lovely.  I hope to be getting a phone call from you, Miss Turney.”  Then Andy and Abbi turn to walk out, Abbi grabbing her own phone out of her pocket and sending Maybelle a text.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. Sorry it's been awhile. Wanted to take advantage of the beginning of my summer break. As always, constructive criticism is welcome.


	6. Two, Three, Four, and Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Abbi spends a little more time with the man she's got eyes for, and then pulls her team together.

Abbi tries to put the new shell she had made for Gavin’s car together with some Beethoven playing from her headphones.  It was around seven in the morning, the day after she had met with Meg.  She was alone in the garage, having let everyone take the morning off so that she could have some time to herself.  Many years ago, it had been only her in the garage, but that was only for the few months right after she had started the garage.  After she had hired her first employee that she could actually afford – who had quit after the first three years that he worked there – she never had a moment to herself in the garage.

The sound of the bell above the door ringing over her music causes her head to shoot up and she smacks the back of her head off of the shell.  “Shit, fuck, my god,” she groans, sliding out from under it and yanking her headphones out.

“Abbi?” she hears Ryan’s voice call, and she glances over to the front room where he’s leaning against the desk and looking into the garage.

“Hi,” she greets, rubbing her head and walking out into the front room.  “How can I help you?”

“Are you alright?” he asks with an apologetic smile on his face.

“Yeah, banged my head really hard.  I’ll be fine,” she brushes it off, though her head hurts terribly bad.  Ignoring the pain, she repeats, “So, how can I help you?”

“Well, I was coming to check on the cars mostly because it gave me a reason to come see you.”  She looks at him as this blush comes up onto her cheeks, and she can’t remember ever feeling this giddy about someone flirting with her.

“Well, um . . .”  She looks down at the counter so that she can gather herself before she tries and fails to speak.  Then she looks up at him and says, “Well, you’ve got all morning.  I’m the only one here until at least one.”  He smiles and she adds, “But I still have work to do, so you’re just going to have to sit back there with me while I work.”

“That I can do.”  He follows her into the garage and finds that it’s exactly as he thought it would be.  There are cars being lifted into the air and there are welding and hands-on tools spread throughout the big room.  The only thing that he wasn’t expecting was the parts of a shell of a car and the car without a shell nearby the parts.

“That’s Gavin’s car,” she tells him, pointing at the car without a shell.  “They had to take the shell off so that they could fix what was going on in the engine and everything.  It was also just easier to remake the shell because it was practically ruined and I had to make it bulletproof.  They’re still not done with the inside, so once I’m done with the shell, I’m going to work on it.”

Ryan narrows his eyes playfully and asks, “Do they know what they’re doing?”

“ _ Usually _ .  Most of the time, it’s Andy telling them what to do because he sees the issue and the resolution just comes to him.  I would like to say that he got that from me, but sometimes I’m sure that he’s smarter than me,” Abbi replies, leaning down and picking up the driver’s side door from the shell.

“Do you want help?” he offers, and she turns to him.

“Oh, no, I do stuff like this all the time.  You could say that it’s my job.”  He hums and just watches her work on it because just watching her move was interesting.  “I used to do this all the time before I hired the idiots that are now my employees.  Now all my employees are all younger than twenty-five and won’t let me do anything without help.”

“How old are you?” Ryan questions instinctively, just trying to make conversation with the attractive woman.

She turns to him and smiles, “Isn’t that a question you’re not supposed to ask people?”  He pops her lips and she chuckles.  “I’m forty.  I think I look pretty damn good for forty,” she tells him, getting back to putting the door on the rest of it.

“You’d be correct.”  She chuckles when she hears that.  “I’m thirty-seven.”  She hums in amusement because she had guessed correctly when she had first met him.

“Well, mister thirty seven year old Ryan, whose last name I don’t actually know,” she starts, making a face when she realizes that she doesn’t know his last name.  She continues, “Do you have a job or do you just bum around?”  He guffaws in surprise of her question and she grins, walking over to the wall to grab her welding tool.

“Where do I think I get the money from?”  She chuckles, grabbing the facemask beside the blow torch and placing it on her head.

“Hey, we all have our secrets,” she murmurs.  Then she pulls the mask down over her face, pulls gloves on, and starts working on the door.  He just watches her because he can’t say anything to her, but she’s beautiful when she’s doing this, too.

Then she finishes the door and pulls the mask off, setting it beside the blowtorch and standing up straight.  And he doesn’t know why he says it, but he lets it out, “Haywood.”  She looks at him and raises her eyebrows.  “My last name is Haywood.”

She furrows her eyebrows and says it like she’s tasting it for the first time, “Ryan Haywood.”  Then she lets her eyebrows slide back up her face and smirks at him, “Suits you.”

“I think I should say thank you.”  She shrugs and moves to another part of the shell, just cleaning it and coating it with this liquid.  He goes to say something else, but his phone starts ringing.  She glances at him for a short moment before going back to the shell.  He sees that it’s Geoff, so he picks it up and stands up.  “Hi?”

“Hey, we got an issue at one of the warehouses.  We got the little bitch here, and I need you to interrogate the hell out of him.”  He looks at Abbi for a moment just watching her fit certain pieces together.

“You got  _ him _ ?”

“No, I wish.  Nah, it’s someone from the people that have been trying to imitate us.”  Ryan sighs because Geoff was right about them being little bitches.

“Alright, send me your location, I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”  Then he hangs up and turns to Abbi, who is getting ready to use the blowtorch again.  “Hey, I gotta head out.  I’ll see you around?”  She looks up at him and nods her head.

“Yeah, I’m gonna give Jack a call later when I finish wrapping up stuff on her car.  If you want to come with her, I’ll be here.”  He smiles and nods his head, walking out of the garage.  He almost runs into some kid walking into the front office on the way out, and he swears he recognizes the lanky brunette.

“Sorry,” he apologizes, not able to place his face.  The kid just smiles and shakes his head at him, holding the door open for him.  

Abbi looks up as she hears Ryan walk out and someone else walk in.  Then she sees Trevor standing there just watching her patiently.  “Hey, you came,” she says, almost like she’s shocked.  She stands up and sets the blow torch down, running her palms on her blue jeans and brushes her hair over her shoulders.

“Yeah, I need a good job and you always take care of me when I come to you,” he explains himself, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Well, this isn’t a job that you’ll be taking alone.  You’ll be taking it with me and a few others,” she responds almost nervously and he stares at her for a second.

“The Lone One isn’t going to be the Lone One anymore.”

Shrugging her shoulders, she tells him, “That’s a risk I have to take.  The Lone One isn’t strong enough to take on the Vagabond and his friends alone anymore.”  Trevor’s brown eyes widen, and she frowns.

“You want me to help you take on the Vagabond?”  Abbi lets out a breath and nods her head.  Trevor scoffs and lets his hands fall to his hips, turning away from her to think about her proposition.  She waits a moment before he looks back and puts his finger in her face.  “You better pay me good.”  

That puts a big grin on her face and she reassures him, “You know I always take care of you.”  Then she confesses, “You’re the only one who said yes so far.”

“It’s okay, I got a couple of friends who owe me some favors.”

While they’re having that conversation in the garage, Ryan’s getting out of his black SUV and walking into Geoff’s warehouse with a mask on his face.  Geoff and Jack turn to him, and he nods his head at them, following them to the boy they had caught in the act of stealing some of their items.  Geoff turns to the kid they have zip tied to the chair in the back room that they would use for interrogations every now and then.

“Hey, kid, you’ve heard of the Vagabond?”  And Ryan frowns behind his mask when the kid doesn’t even get scared.

“Of course I have.  Who hasn’t with what’s going on with the Lone One?”  Ryan turns to Geoff and nods at him, letting him know that he can handle it from there.  Geoff and Jack walk out of the back room.  Ryan grabs a stool and puts it in front of the kid to sit down in front of him.

“Why are you here?” he asks in his dark, intimidating voice.

“I wanted some of your stuff.”  Ryan rolls his eyes.

“Obviously.  Why’d you want it?” 

“I wanted to show you that you don’t matter as much as  _ him _ .” 

“Who?” 

“The Lone One.”  And then that’s when the kid shuts up, and Ryan keeps asking him questions about who the Lone One is and what he wants.  He just doesn’t answer, almost turning to stone.  Then Ryan figures it out.

“Do you even know who the Lone One is?”  He makes eye contact with Ryan and shakes his head.  “So, why are you working for him?” 

“I’m not.  But I’d rather him rule over Los Santos than you filthy scum.”  Ryan raises his eyebrows.

“What’s so different about us and the Lone One?”

“We don’t mind being under him.  He’s been around for so long that we can see that he deserves his place.  You’ve been around for what, five years?  All we’ve seen from you guys that you’re a bunch of pussies.”  This causes Ryan to sigh and shake his head.

“If you don’t work for the Lone One, who do you work for?” 

“You know who I work for.”  Ryan sighs, having all the information that he really needs from him, and stands up.  He moves the stool back to where it was and walks out of the room, going to Geoff and Jack.  As he walks out, the kid shouts, “Long live the Lone One.”  Ryan shakes his head and pulls his mask off.

When he gets to Geoff and Jack, he explains, “He’s only here to to ‘show us that we don’t matter’ and says that the Lone One is favored more than us.  That’s the only reason he’s here.  He doesn’t know who the Lone One is, just knows that he’s been around for so long that they like him more and would rather live under his rule.”  Geoff sighs in exasperation while Jack just frowns.

“We’re going to have to kill him, aren’t we?”  Geoff and Ryan turn to her and nod their heads.

“We can’t be pulling in anymore like that, Jack.  Ryan, Gav, Michael, and Ray were obviously done with who they were, this kid isn’t,” Geoff whispers to her, and Ryan looks away because he knows that they’re looking for a private moment.

“I know, but you know me.”

“I do, and I love you, but if he’s for  _ him _ , he’s gotta go.”  Jack nods her head, and Geoff kisses her forehead before pulling his gun out and walking into the back room.  Jack flinches when she hears Geoff shoot the kid, and Ryan pats her shoulder.

“You’re a good woman, Jack.”  She smiles sadly at him and nods her head.

Back at the garage, Abbi’s working on finishing Jack’s car up and waiting for Trevor to get his friends to come to the garage.  She pauses what she’s doing when she feels her phone vibrate in her back pocket.  She pulls it out and checks it, seeing that it’s from Meg Turney.

“I’m in, and I’ve got a friend.”

Abbi looks up at Trevor letting two people into the garage and grins, finding that this is really coming together.  She looks back down at her phone and sends her location to Meg before walking to the front office.

“Alright, Abbi, this is Jeremy Dooley and Matt Bragg.  Guys, this is Abbi Robertson, otherwise known as the Lone One,” Trevor introduces them.  Abbi folds her hands behind her back and smiles while the two stare at her in awe.

“It’s great to meet JDoolz, the Monster Truck, undefeated champion of the underground boxing club, and Axialmatt, amazing sniper,” she states, knowing exactly who they were just because she kept tabs on Trevor from time to time.  They turn to each other in shock, and she just chuckles.

“This is who you’ll be working for if you want to cache in those favors,” Trevor explains.

Abbi shrugs and corrects, “Well, working with.”

“What would we be doing for the  _ Lone One _ ?” Matt asks, running his hand through his shoulder length hair.  

“Well, you know about the things going on with the Vagabond?”  The two nod their heads, and Abbi smiles gently.  “I need to get rid of him, take him and his friends away from the equation.  That’s something the Lone One can’t do by herself.”

“You want us to help you kill the Fake AH Crew?” Jeremy asks like he’s terrified of even thinking about it.  Abbi gives them an apologetic look while nodding her head.  “Just the four of us?”  Abbi chuckles and shakes her head.

“No, I’ve got Dollface and who I believe is LTugg coming to help us out.  I’ve also got some B-team people that are willing to help out,” she informs them, and Matt seems to wrap his head around it while Jeremy just continues to stare at her with confused eyes.

“I’m just a cage fighter.  I don’t know how to fight a  _ gang _ .” 

So, Abbi goes through the list she went through when she recruited Trevor, “You know how to shoot a gun?”  He nods his head.  “You obviously know hand-to-hand combat.  Do you know how to navigate?”  Again he nods his head.  “Can you work with teammates?”  Again, a nod.  “Then you’re set.”

“He also has extensive knowledge with explosives,” Trevor informs her, and she grins widely at the information.

“That helps you out a ton.”

Then the bell above the door rings, so they all turn and see Meg walk in with a blonde girl behind her.  Abbi grins when she immediately recognizes the blonde girl as LTugg, just as she thought.  “Ladies,” she greets, and Jeremy and Matt move out of the way so that Abigail can have a clear view of them.

“Abigail, this is Lindsay.  She’s great at hacking and working on the computer.  Lindsay, this is Abigail, the Lone One.”  Lindsay nods at her like she can believe it immediately.

And Abbi grins because she has everyone she needs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Was on a roadtrip and got bored. Hope you guys like it. Constructive Criticism is always welcomed.


	7. Pushing Us Forward

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Making sure that things are going well and everyone knows the risks are things that leaders must do.

Abbi ducks and runs for cover as someone shoots at her.  “Holy shit, are you alright?” Maybelle asks while she leans against the barrier and looks at Alex. 

“Yeah, I’m good.”  Alex looks up at her and they make eye contact, just communicating through their eyes.  Then they nod at each other, so Abbi looks over at Maybelle.  She whispers, “We’re gonna charge them.  You ready?”  Maybelle nods, and Abbi turns to face their enemies.  “On the count of three . . .  One, two . . . Three!”  The three girls run out and start shooting at their enemies, who quickly lose.

“Man, why do you guys always win at lazer tag?” Jarius whines as the lights in the room come back on and his suit shows how many times Maybelle shot him.  Aren and Andy stand up, also covered in lights from being shot so many times.

“Because you guys just suck?” Maybelle offers, leading them to the exit of the course.

“No, it’s because you guys always have Abbi on your team,” Aren corrects her, the six of them taking their vests and guns off.

Abbi narrows her eyes, turns to him, and asks, “Why would we win because of that?”

“Because you’re like a fucking war hero,” Andy exclaims, and they all look at him, Aren and Jarius agreeing with him.

“How I am a war hero?”

“To criminals, you are,” Aren states, and Abbi, Alex, and Maybelle all turn to him with the same expression of wanting him to shut the hell up.  “No one cares, no one’s listening.  This is Los Santos, where everyone believes that nothing will happen to them, because they’re too self-absorbed.”  Abbi rolls her eyes and shakes her head.

“They’re not self-absorbed.  They’re in denial and scared.  If you were scared, what would you do, think about yourself and your safety, or make sure everyone else was alright?” the older woman questions as they walk out.

“I’d like to think that I would help other people out,” Andy admits, and they all look at him.

“Because knowing you, Andy, you probably would,” Maybelle states, walking to Alex’s car that they all barely fit in.  They’re silent for a while, just listening to the radio and watching the lights at Alex drives them back to the garage where all their cars are.

“Oh, man,” Abbi sighs as she rubs her eyes.  “I have to stay for a meeting tonight so we can decide what we’ll first do to rile the Fake AH Crew up.”  All her employees turn to her in excitement and she sighs again, “No.”

They all erupt in a cacophony of pleading and begging except for Alex, who was nauseous thinking about the whole idea.  Abbi just continues to shake her head while Alex turns onto a street filled with potholes.  “We’ll be quiet, can we just please sit in on this one?” Jarius shouts over everyone else.  Abbi rolls her eyes and looks over at Alex.

“Don’t look at me, I just want to go home,” the second oldest of her employees deflects.  Abbi sighs once more before throwing her hands in the air.

“You know what?  Fine.”  Then she spins around in her seat and looks at the four who are desperate to see her in action.  She gives them this intimidating look and says in a dark voice, “But so help me god, if one of you make a peep of this outside of that garage, I will shoot you, and they won’t even bring you into a hospital room . . .  They’ll send you straight to a morgue.”  The four nod in fear while Alex chuckles and Abbi turns back around.

“Good thing I’m just going home.”

“No, I want you there with me.  You’re our medic,” Abbi tells her, and she gives this long whine.

“Abbi!”

“Alex, you’re the only one with any medical experience other than me, and I’m going to be out there doing the work.  I need you.”  Alex turns to stone, so Abbi repeats it, “I  _ need  _ you.”  That gets Alex to give in.

“Fine, but I’m not going out into the field.  You always bring the injured to me,” Alex commands, and Abbi nods her head.

While they’re getting to the garage, over in a penthouse across town, Ryan is sitting at a table along with Geoff and Jack, and Gavin is standing in front of them with Michael sitting in the corner of the room, like he always does when Gavin is presenting information.  “So, there’s almost thirty years of information on the Lone One,” Gavin starts out, and Ryan realizes that Geoff probably asked him to gather information about the Lone One.

“But the thing is . . . none of it comes from things online other than in online news articles.  There’s no database to hack into, no mentions of his name online, nothing.  I’ve read through most of the articles, and there’s a series of them providing information on why they think the Lone One is actually a woman.  A lot of it is actually reasonable, too, so they’re might be something behind it.  There’s also some recent articles from Jon Risinger about both Ryan and the Lone One with valid evidence to back it up.  But, I thought you would like to take a look at all of it before you believed any of it.”  Gavin hands Ryan and Geoff their own files of the same information.

“Take me down the route of the Lone One being a woman.”  Ryan glances at Geoff in confusion before looking back at Gavin.

Gavin nods and glances at Michael.  Michael sighs and stands up.  He says, “Well, I found this information.  Basically, there’s photos of him, or I guess her, that show her body figure and then the way she acts.  You can go ahead and actually read the articles for more evidence.”  So, both Geoff and Ryan take the time to skim through it, and Ryan quickly finds himself believing that the Lone One’s a woman.

“So, say she is a woman.  What does that do for us?” Ryan asks, and Gavin steps up.

“Well, it narrows it down, gives us a better way to find her.  Helps us find a weakness and all that.”

Geoff asks the next question, “So, take us down Risinger’s evidence.” 

“He’s got her pattern down, what kind of weapons she uses, and he’s pointed out that she doesn’t use a sniper rifle.  He’s got where she’s likely to be, and where she’s not likely to be.  It’s got people she might have alliances with,” he informs them.

“Okay, and what does he say about the Vagabond?”

“A lot of it is just the same stuff as the Lone One, but he thinks that Ryan and she might be secretly working together.  There’s some evidence behind it, but it really doesn’t make much sense, that one,” Gavin says.  Ryan chuckles at the thought and shakes his head.

“There’s more statements than that, but I didn’t think they were too important to mention.  So, I just went through and highlighted the important stuff.”  Geoff and Ryan nod their heads.

“Do we know where Risinger’s staying?” Ryan questions, standing up and grabbing his mask off of the table.

Geoff questions, “You want to go after him?”  Ryan looks down and nods his head.

“I can get you something really quick,” Gavin offers.

Ryan raises his head and commands, “Go.”  Gavin nods and jogs out of the room, Michael following closely behind.

Back at the garage, Abbi, all her employees, and her new crew members are sitting in the back armory room that none of her employees had known was there.  Trevor had known it was there since back in the day when he first started working for the Lone One, but he knew that she didn’t let her employees back there.  She had never fully trusted people all the way to let them know everything.  And even if she did trust someone enough to show them her armory, there were other places spread throughout the garage that they didn’t know of.

“Alright, so what’s the plan?  What are we shooting for?” Jeremy questions, putting his feet up on the table in the middle of the room.  Abbi chuckles because she can see that Jeremy’s much more comfortable with the idea of working with her.  She can also see that Matt is holding Jeremy’s hand very discreetly, and it’s so cute that it almost makes her sick.

“Well, are we all aware of who we’re going to be against?” she questions, and everyone nods.  “First order of business, I’d like to introduce the medic we have.  This is just in case it goes awry, which I’m really hoping it won’t.  If we all follow the plan, it won’t.  Now, this is Alex, she went to med school and once she gets started, she’s great.”  Abbi turns her swivel chair a little to look at Alex, Andy, Aren, Maybelle, and Jarius.  Alex smiles and waves.  “You’ll have to excuse the other four.  They’re just a bunch of idiots who wanted to see how I worked.”

The five members of her crew chuckle while she turns back.  “So, our first way that we’re going to attack them is to take out one of their warehouses.  This is one that I can handle with Jeremy and Matt, but if I can’t, Maybelle will have the rest of you in a car not too far off.  Jeremy and I will go in, plant a bunch of C4, run out, and explode it.  Matt, you’ll be planted on a roof not too far off so that if Jeremy and I get caught, you can snipe them out quickly.  Andy’s working on a com system for us right now that Lindsay will get running.  Any questions?”  Trevor raises his hand, so Abbi just raises her eyebrows at him.

He lowers his hand and asks, “Can we have a quick introduction of all of them?”

“Uh, I’m Jarius, I just work here,” Jarius, the tallest and the youngest of the group, starts.  Abbi looks at the African American teenager who had just turned eighteen last week and nods her head gratefully.

“I’m Andy.  I like shooting guns and I’m good with technology.”

“I’m Maybelle.  I run getaway cars for several different criminals that are willing to work under the Lone One.” 

“I’m Alex, you already know me.”

“And I’m Aren, the most mature out of Abbi’s kids.”  Meg nods in approval of his description of the five kids.  They were pretty much Abbi’s children.  Abbi had picked most of them up off of the street when they had nowhere else to go.  Andy was the only one she hadn’t, he was just tired of living with his ignorant, asshole, rich parents.

“It’s nice to meet all of you,” Lindsay says, giving them a gentle smile.  They all smile back and Abbi nods, turning back to her crew.

“So, are we all set?” 

Meanwhile Ryan passes Abbi’s garage on the way to Jon Risinger’s place, and when he sees that her bike is there, he makes a note to stop by on the way back.  Then he continues speeding and makes it to Jon Risinger’s almost surprisingly decent house in good time.  He pulls his phone out of the pocket of his leather jacket while grabbing the mask from the passenger seat.  Dialing Gavin’s phone number and pulling the phone to his ear, he pulls his mask on and makes sure his handgun and knife are secure in their holster and scabbard.  Gavin quickly picks up.  “Hallo?”

“Hey, Gav, I’m at Risinger’s place, but I gotta make a stop somewhere else after, so I don’t know when I’ll be home,” he informs the younger man.

“Alright, well, I’ll be waiting for you, lovely Ryan.”

“You’re terrible, Gavin.”  Gavin squawks, and Ryan grins and hangs up before getting out of the car and shoving his phone back in his jacket.  Ryan walks up to the front door and rings the doorbell.  While he waits for Jon to come to the door, he pulls the knife out of his scabbard and gets ready.

“. . . Fucking ten, what the hell do you want?” Jon groans as he opens the door.  Ryan immediately puts the knife up to his throat and slams him into the wall directly beside the doorway.  He shuts the door with his foot before looking Jon in his fearful eyes.  “Oh, my god, don’t kill me.”

“Shut up, Risinger,” he demands before tossing him to the floor.  Jon doesn’t move after he’s sat up, just stares at the Vagabond in terror.

“What do you want from me?” Jon questions, and Ryan moves into the house, looking at the setup of the place.

“What do you know about the Lone One?”  Jon stares at him in complete and utter shock of his question, and it takes him a moment to gather himself.  But once he does, he pushes himself up, gets his shoulder length hair out of the way, and keeps his blue eyes on the Vagabond.

“I know that she’s a woman, and that she basically rules over all of Los Santos.  She’s rather predictable and she doesn’t kill women and children, only men.  She doesn’t use knives or sniper rifles, but she’s definitely not against using a blowtorch to kill someone.” 

“That’s all stuff I’ve heard before.  Tell me something I don’t know.”

“She used to work with a crew, but left them twenty-seven years ago and that’s when she became the Lone One,” Jon informs him, and behind his mask, Ryan smiles as he turns to face the reporter.

“Now, that’s what I was looking for.  What was her motive for leaving?  And how are you sure she’s a woman?” 

“Her old crew, the Randoms, she ran with them from what I can gather a young age.  There was a big hit on them where more than thirty of them died, so she ran and started working alone, hence the Lone One.  And as for her gender, I have pictures upon pictures of her,” Jon tells him, and the Vagabond hums.

“Show me.”  So, Jon leads him into the room beside his bedroom and shows him all the pictures he has tacked up on the wall.  “Holy shit.  Who took these?”

“I did.  That’s how I get to write all of my articles.  I have to get into the action to get action.”  And though Ryan shouldn’t be impressed with the attractive man, he finds himself just that.

“I’m impressed, Risinger.  Can’t wait to be working with you some more.”  And then, it’s almost like the Vagabond just disappears in front of Jon’s eyes.  And Jon grabs his stomach and slides down the wall, in shock of what just happened.

And Ryan just gets back into his car, pulls the mask off, and drives off.  He gets to Abbi’s garage and finds that all of the cars surrounding hers before were all gone now.  So, he yanks off the jacket in fear that she might recognize it and walks up to the glass door.  Finding her leaning against the doorway to the garage and rubbing her eyes, he pulls the door open and walks in.  He hadn’t seen her in two weeks, since he went with Jack to pick up her car.  He had really wished he hadn’t waited so long because before she even sees who he is, her hands go down to her shoulder holster and go to grab the guns out.  But then she does see who he is, so she stops.

“Jesus fucking Christ, you’re scared the legitimate hell out of me.”  Ryan chuckles.

“Sorry, saw you were still here, so I thought I would stop by.”  Abbi smiles at him and shakes her head.

“Well, you gotta let a girl know, love.”  

He smiles at the term of endearment and quickly comes up with a sassy reply, “I would, but you haven’t given me your number yet, Ms. Robertson.”  Abbi smirks and steps closer to him, so close that he can smell the Mr. Burberry Eau de Toilette perfume on her.

“You never asked, Mr. Haywood.”  They stare at each other for a moment before she pushes herself away from him.  “Give me your arm,” she commands, taking a sharpie from the desk behind them.  He lifts his hand and she takes it in her calloused fingers, writing her number on his hand in permanent ink.

“My friends are never going to let me live this down.”  Once she’s finished, she looks up at him with this beautiful smile on her face.  So, he wraps his arm around her waist and pulls her flush to him.  “Go on a date with me.” 

“Text me the details, hot stuff.”  Then they both pull away and she walks over to the door, holding it open for him.  He walks out and she locks it, and then they both walk to their cars, parting ways for the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading.


	8. A Declaration of War

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Lone One blows up a warehouse while Abbi plans a date.

Three days later, Abbi’s sitting in Jeremy’s terribly colored car.  He called it the Armored Rim, and she positively hates it.  Just like she hates the purple blazer he was wearing, and the orange t-shirt, and the yellow jeans, and the Stetson upon his head.  She hates his stupid name he had come up with three days ago while they were sitting in the garage.  Fucking Rimmy Tim. 

But in a way, she loves it, because he’s drawing attention to them and Rimmy Tim is nothing like Jeremy Dooley.  Jeremy Dooley was into boy talk and watching shit movies.  Rimmy Tim was into big explosions and killing people.  She loves it because he reminds her of herself when she was younger and just starting out. 

“Alright, ladies and gents, roll call,” Lindsay says over the com while Abbi and Jeremy get the explosives ready.  “Maybelle?”

“Present!”

“Trevor?”

“Here.”

“Meg?”

“Hi.”

“Matt?”

“Hello.”

“Jeremy?”

“What’s up, bitches?”  Abbi turns to him as he answers in his Mayor Joel Heyman imitation. 

“You’re an idiot.”

“No, I’m Rimmy Tim.”  She rolls her eyes as she pulls her mask over her face. 

“Alex?”

“Online.”

“And the lady of the hour, Abigail?”

She turns on the voice changing module that she and Aren had made and answers, “It’s Abbi.  Matt, are we good to go?”  Everyone kind of just goes silent at the pitch drop, and Jeremy just looks at her in thinly veiled adoration.  “Matt?” she repeats, almost sounding like Batman.  Everyone quickly gets used to it, and Matt checks the perimeter again. 

“Yeah, yeah, you’re good to go.”  She looks at Jeremy and nods her head, so he puts the car in drive and pulls out of the parking garage they had been sitting in.  They quickly park it on the side of the road right beside the warehouse and run in, hiding behind some of the crates.  “Alright, Jeremy, you’re gonna wanna run to the left, Abbi, you to the right,” Matt informs them, “And hide them out of sight.”  They both run their separate directions, planting them in between the crates.  

At one point, someone comes toward Abbi, so she jumps off of the wall onto the crate beside her and lies flat on top of it while two people walk by.  Once she’s sure they’re gone, she gets back on the ground and continues.  “Abbi, I’m where we’re supposed to meet,” Jeremy whispers while Abbi quickly picks up the pace. 

“Sorry, someone came at me.  I had to hide,” she explains, finishing up and meeting him at the exit.  “Go, go, go!”  They sprint out of there and quickly jump into his car.  While Jeremy turns the car on, puts it in reverse, and gets out of there, Abbi presses the button and watches in the sideview mirror as the place just explodes.

“Jesus Christ,” Maybelle exclaims, following Jeremy and Abbi.  Abbi turns the voice changing module off and pulls her mask off.

“Lindsay, keep eyes on the news,” she commands, and Lindsay gives affirmation.  

“Alright, I’m shutting my com off,” Alex states.

“There’s an SUV following us!” Maybelle calls, and Abbi pulls her mask back on.

“Alright, split ways, most likely they’ll follow the brightly colored car,” Jeremy commands, and Abbi nods her head in agreement.  So, the next chance they get, Jeremy goes right and Maybelle heads left, and just as they thought, the SUV follows Jeremy and Abbi.

Abbi pulls her handgun out of her holster and mutters, “Predictable motherfuckers.  Maybelle, get the car somewhere and just hide out for awhile.  Once we lose these guys, we’ll be doing the same.”

“Ten four.”  Then Abbi gets on the console and opens the sunroof that Jeremy has.  She stands up and starts shooting at the SUV.  She tries to hit the driver and after three shots, she figures it’s useless.  So, instead, she aims at the front left tire and takes it out almost immediately.  The SUV swerves and slams into another car, so she gets back inside the car and closes the sunroof.  

“I’m getting rusty,” she sighs, sitting back in her seat.

“I’d say you did pretty damn good,” Jeremy tells her, pulling his Stetson off and running a hand through his brunette hair.

She smirks at him and replies, “If you think that was good, you haven’t seen anything yet.”  

“That’s true,” Maybelle chuckles, “Alright, we’re hiding out in Andy’s garage.”

“You are a terrible person,” Abbi laughs, feeling a little bit of an adrenaline rush.  “Maybelle, is this what it feels like when you’re a getaway driver?” 

“What?”

“The adrenaline rush.”

“No, I’ve gotten used to it.”

“Abbi, have you ever done something like this before?” Meg questions, and Abbi takes a deep breath to calm herself down.

“I’ve never had to try and take down another gang before,” she admits, and everyone lets out a breath of surprise.  “That’s why I’m trying to stay on top of this and take them down.”

“I have a question, Abbi,” Matt states, so she hums inquisitively while Jeremy parks in an inconspicuous place.  “If you die at any time, who would be the heir to the throne?”  Abbi sits back and thinks about the question, never having thought of it before.

“Well, I suppose . . .  I suppose that whoever could grab it would get it.  Once I’m dead, I’m gone, and that’s it for me.  If someone who followed me would like to say that I choose them, I can’t exactly tell them they can’t because I’m dead.”

“That’s so morbid,” Meg mumbles, and she chuckles, grabbing her phone out of her pocket and checking the messages she has.

There’s one from Ryan about taking her on a date this coming Friday.  There’s another one from Aren from two minutes ago saying that Ryan had come looking for her, but had left in a hurry when he got a phone call from his boss.  She replies to the one from Aren first, just saying, “Yeah, it’s all taken care of.”  Then she sends a message back to Ryan, “Yeah, that sounds good.  I’m excited.”  Then she sees a bunch of cop cars speed past the parking garage she and Jeremy were hidden in.  Then two firetrucks.  Then a handful of SUVs.

“I think we’re good.  Everyone get back to the garage,” Abbi commands, so Jeremy goes out another exit and they get out of dodge.  When they get to the garage, Abbi gets out the car and yanks her mask off, revealing her sweaty face and messy blond hair.

“Holy shit!” they all hear Jarius exclaim as they walk through the back down.  “You guys did that?”  They all walk into the break room where the television is on and Alex, Jarius, Andy, and Aren are all watching it in awe and anxiety.

Then Abbi gets another text from Ryan, “I’ll pick you up at seven.  Dress to impress.”  She smiles before shoving her phone in her back pocket and pulling her jacket off.

“The good thing is that they can’t hit us anywhere like that because they don’t know who you guys are, and I don’t have a place like that,” she tells everyone as they all start taking off their costumes. 

“We’ve just declared war the Fake AH Crew,” Matt whispers, and Jeremy looks over at him.

“That’s what we signed up for, buddy.”  Abbi looks over at them and sees the two give each other a lingering look.  Then Matt looks down at the floor.

He says, “I know.  It’s just . . .  We better win this.” 

Abbi grins and nods her head, “And we’re going to.”  And everyone, including her employees, look at her with adoration and acceptance.

Meanwhile, Ryan’s standing in the living room of the penthouse he lived in with his friends.  “I thought Gavin said that she didn’t use explosives!” he shouts as Geoff and Jack sit on the couch and Gavin, Michael, and Ray slowly gather into the room.

“Maybe that was something he just didn’t catch,” Jack tries to defend Gavin, because even though Geoff normally would, he’s still steaming from having lost one of the warehouses.

“That isn’t something you just miss!” Ryan shouts back while Michael and Ray walk into the room.  Gavin follows with this spark in his eyes.  “You better have a fucking  _ fantastic _ explanation!”

Gavin flinches just slightly before brushing it off and holding his tablet up, “I do!  She’s working with other people.”  This time, everyone but Michael gives him an incredulous look.  “I have evidence!”

“Her name is the  _ Lone One _ , idiot!” Ray exclaims.  Ryan grabs the tablet from Gavin and watches the security footage that Gavin had salvaged from the warehouse.  He watches the Lone One jog around the floor, sticking what looked like C4 all over the place.  Then he notices that there’s another man dressed up in orange and purple with a Stetson on his head running around assisting her.

“Who is that?” 

“It looks like that guy Rimmy Tim from Boston,” Gavin replies, and Michael looks up at him with furrowed eyebrows.

“ _ Rimmy Tim _ ?”  Both Gavin and Ryan look down at Michael.

Geoff asks, “You know him?”  Michael nods his head.

“I worked with him once or twice.  He was supposed to move here a few months after I did, but I could never figure out what happened to him.  Thought maybe someone picked him off or something,” Michael explains.  

Gavin nods his head before taking the tablet from Ryan’s hand and saying, “But watch this.”  He taps a few times before handing the tablet back to Ryan.  Slowly getting more angry and anxious, Ryan watches another perspective of the security footage, except it’s pointed at the other building.  He gets the urge to ask what he’s looking at, but then he notices that there’s someone kneeling on the roof of the building.  “Do you see who that is?”  Ryan shakes his head as the guy goes running off.  So, Gavin rewinds it a little bit and zooms in on the guy.  And Ryan gets a good look at him.

“Axialmatt,” he whispers, and Gavin nods his head.

“Those two together without the Lone One would be a dangerous mix,” Jack remarks, “With the Lone One helping them, they’re undefeatable.”  They all look at her, and she looks at Geoff because this is getting a lot more real.

“The real question is why she’s calling in favors,” Geoff states, and Gavin takes the tablet from Ryan to sit down on the couch.

“Maybe she knows that we would totally obliterate her if she stayed alone,” Ray retorts.

Michael looks at him, “Yeah, and we’re going to beat her anyway.  We’re the fucking Fake AH Crew.”

“We better beat her,” Geoff mutters.

Ryan speaks up, “We will.  There’s no way we can’t.”  Michael, Ray, and Geoff smirk at him while Jack looks at the floor with this scared look on her face and Gavin stares at his hands with an unsure look on his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!!!


	9. A Date and a Bullet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Abbi finally goes on a date with Ryan, and things go better than planned until she gets back home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's both smut and violence in this one, but neither are too explicit. Hope you like it! xx

Abbi paces the floor back and forth to the sound of her employees playing Mario Kart 8 in her living room.  She’s got a nice black dress on that fits her form, her nails have been painted red just like her lips, and she’s got this nice color theme in her makeup that brings her green eyes out.  She’s checked her hair in the mirror about seven times, and is about to go back for another check before Alex and Maybelle walk into the front room and stop her.  “You’re going to do fine, Abbi,” Alex tells her while Maybelle runs her hand through her hair that she had just recently dyed back to brown.

“I know, but I haven’t been on a date in years, Alex.  I don’t just frequently do this.  I don’t just frequently get attracted to people,” Abbi rambles, playing with her fingers.

Maybelle smiles gently and speaks up, “Neither do I, Abbi.  But I still have to be brave and try something.  This is your chance.  Maybe he’s going to be the one, and he’ll take you away from this shit life.”  Abbi thinks about it for a second before getting composure back and standing there confidently.

“Right . . .  What time is it?” 

Alex checks the Apple Watch on her wrist and answers, “It’s four minutes to seven.”

“An SUV just pulled up, get the lights!” Andy shouts, turning the television off and leaving the WiiU on.  Jarius and Aren get the lights in the living room, and Alex and Maybelle run in there to hide in the dark.  Abbi rolls her eyes and checks everything in the mirror once more.  

Then her doorbell rings, and she turns, staring at the door for a second.  The nerves come back, and she thinks of how easy it would be to just run and hide.  She could cut Ryan off with just gliding her fingers across a screen.  She had done it to people before, she could do it again.

But just as quickly as those thoughts enter her mind, she sends them out and walks to the door.  Taking a deep breath and pulling it open, she lets her jaw drop when she sees the suit that Ryan is wearing.  Ryan’s jaw also drops when he sees her.  “You’re . . . gorgeous.”  Abbi quickly closes her mouth and starts blushing.  She thanks whatever god there is for makeup and shitty porch lights.

“You aren’t too bad yourself,” she replies, because Ryan is also gorgeous.  He picks up his own jaw and smiles at her.

“Are you ready?”  She smiles and nods her head, grabbing her purse off of the table right beside the door and walking out.  While she’s shutting the door behind her, Ryan takes notice of the two pairs of eyes watching him from the only window on the porch.  “There are two pairs of eyes watching us from the window,” he informs her.  She turns and looks at the window.

“Really?” she calls to the window and the eyes disappear.  Ryan chuckles while she scoffs and turn back to him.  “You’ll have to excuse my employees.”

“I feel like I’ve been told that before,” he states, and she smiles.

“Because I’m pretty sure I have said it to you before.”  Then he steps down off of the porch and she follows him down.  They walk to the car and he holds the passenger door open for her to get in.  Then he shuts the door behind her and jogs over to his side.  She quickly gets herself sorted out while he gets in.  They both pull their seatbelts on and he starts the engine.  “So, where are we going?” 

“There’s a nice restaurant over on Fourth Street that I wanted to visit, and I thought you might like it,” he tells her as he pulls off of her street and heads downtown.   She hums and he says, “If you don’t like it, we can go somewhere else.” 

She replies, “Is it that place that just opened up?”  He nods his head, and she tells him, “Yeah, I’ve heard it was great.  I don’t mind trying it out.”  On the way there, they talk about how it’s been since they last saw each other a few nights ago.  He tells her how he’s been severely swamped at work, and she tells him how she started on a new car, how she’s finished the shell of Gavin’s car, and how it would probably be done within the next few days.  And he just listens to her ramble about how her employees -- or her kids, as she liked to call them -- could be complete idiots and had made a bomb out of a water bottle and a few other chemicals.  He chuckles because Michael, Gavin, and Ray had done that several times.

Then they get to the restaurant, and as Abbi gets out of the car, her green eyes widen.  She usually ate at hole-in-the-wall places unless she was with her kids.  But Ryan had really surprised her.  This place was obviously for the rich people in Los Santos.  Sure, she had millions of dollars to waste, but she didn’t consider herself rich.  She invested her money in her kids and ways to make sure the impoverished people survived.  She looks at Ryan as he hands his keys to the valet and finds herself praying to that god she had thanked before that he wasn’t one of  _ those  _ rich people.  

Then he turns to her and smiles widely.  She quickly returns that smile and states, “You’ve outdone yourself, Ryan.”  His smile gets even wider and he links her arm with his, leading her inside.  

“Haywood for two,” he tells the hostess when they walk in, and Abbi studies the people around them as the hostess leads them through the restaurant.  These were cops, a governor, and even Mayor Joel Heyman was in there.  Abbi sucks in her stomach and walks a little straighter, remembering that when Ryan had brought Gavin’s car in, there were bullets all over it.  She prays some more that he isn’t a cop or something.

The hostess leads them to a private room in the back of the restaurant, and Ryan smiles at her gratefully as she places their menus down and leaves.  “How much did getting this room cost?” she questions, looking around the beautifully, minimalistically decorated room.

“A few hundred dollars, not too much,” he answers, looking through his menu.  Her eyes stay wide while she looks through her own menu, trying to comprehend how he could just spend money like that -- especially on her.

Then she finds herself saying, “All this food on here looks so good, but also looks  _ super _ expensive.”  He looks up at her with a frown.

“Yeah, I didn’t think you would mind too much because I was going to pay.”

She breathes, “What did you say your job was?”  Looking back down at his menu, he smiles and shakes his head at her.

“I’m a businessman.  I sell new cars to people.”  She hums and lets herself relax, because at least he isn’t connected to the government.  “So, what do you think you’re going to have?” 

“All the pasta stuff looks pretty great.”  They both quickly decide on the three course pasta special they have, and while they’re waiting for a waiter to come, they start talking about his job.  He tells her that they’re kind of like a family, constantly spending time with each other or going out to do jobs together.  He explains to her that their company is rather small, just the six of them along with some other people who do the behind-the-scenes work.

Then a waiter comes in with a bottle of wine and two glasses.  He sets them down, and asks what they’d like to eat.  Ryan answers for both of them, and he nods and leaves.  While Ryan is pouring some wine for the both of them, she explains to him that she usually ate in holes in the walls where people kept guns on them constantly because she usually fixed their cars for them and they cared for her.  But when she was eating in places like this, it was because her kids were with her.  He tells her that he understands because he used to do the same, but only ever came to safer places if there was someone important to him with him.  She almost wants to blush, but she forces herself not to.

“You wanna know a secret about most of the cops here?” Ryan asks her, and she listens intently, indulging in the Lone One’s desire to know more just slightly.  “The only reason most of these cops can come here is because they’re being paid to keep their mouths shut about some of the things going on.”  She furrows her eyebrows.

“By who?”  It certainly wasn’t her, and none of her people that are allied with her would pay them.

“The Fake AH Crew, who else?”  She thinks for a second before realizing that he’s right.

She responds, “I get what you’re talking about, but how would you know?” 

“Jon Risinger, that famous journalist.  He’s a friend of mine, and he knows all about the Fake AH Crew,” he tells her.  Before she gets the chance to respond, the waiter comes back in with their first course.  While they eat, they continue on the topic of the Fake AH Crew.  “Yeah, apparently the Vagabond got into his house and was asking him what he knew about the Lone One.”  

“Does he know about him, too?” she asks, making sure the Lone One’s identity isn’t that obvious.

“Yeah, and he can actually prove that  _ he’s  _ a  _ her _ ,” Ryan tells her before taking a huge bite of pasta.  Abbi rears her head back, and Ryan grins and nods his head.  “He’s got pictures upon pictures.  He also knows who she worked for before she became the Lone One.”

She chews and swallows her bite before asking, “Who was she?”  She knows exactly who she was back in the day.  She knows the shitty crew she worked for when she was a kid, she knows what happened to make her leave, and she knows that she didn’t really care if anyone else knew.

“She was part of a crew called the Randoms.  They aren’t really in existence anymore because about thirty years ago, some other crew wiped out about thirty of the thirty-five in the crew.  Obviously, that meant she was the one of the only five to survive.  She went and killed all of the people in the crew that hit the Randoms by herself.  That was how she got her name.  Then she dropped off of the face of the earth for awhile when she was fifteen.  She came back around the time she turned twenty and somehow got a huge following,” he explains to her, and she nods her head in understanding.

Then she notices his tone at the end of his explanation.  She asks, “You don’t like her?” 

“No, I favor the Fake AH Crew.  The Lone One is just looking out for the criminals while the Fake AH Crew is looking out for the people who get played by these cops and government officials,” he says, getting just slightly heated about the topic.

Either she doesn’t notice or doesn’t care because she just asks another question, “Then why are they paying the cops to stay quiet?” 

“Because of it keeps them off their backs when they go all Robin Hood.”  Abbi purses her lips as she thinks about it.  “What, do you disagree?” 

“Well, I’ve done a few paint jobs for the Lone One before.  He or she seems pretty just and fair,” she informs him, taking a sip of the wine.  His blue eyes dilate.

“You know her?” 

“No.  I’ve only met people she has working for her.  They’re all people that she picked up off of the street and has working for her.  She gave them jobs and they have homes now,” she defends what he doesn’t know is herself.

And he defends what she doesn’t realize is himself, “Yeah, she picked them up off the street, but only to run crime jobs for her.  The Fake AH Crew just makes sure the innocent people get a chance to lead a good life without going to that length.”  And then they both shrug their shoulders because their difference of opinion isn’t really a big deal in the long run.

For the rest of their dinner, they flirt and tell each other stories about what they consider their family and laugh about the stories.  Then around ten, they finally make it out of the restaurant and wait for the valet to drop the SUV off.  While they’re waiting, Ryan looks down at Abbi -- she’s only three inches shorter than him, so not too much -- and he says, “I had a really good time tonight.”  She smiles up at him.

“Me, too.”  And he takes a risk, leaning forward and kissing her.  It almost takes her by surprise, but she quickly recovers, kissing him back and resting her hand on his cheek.  He wraps his arm around her back to pull her closer.  They take a moment to just savor the moment.  But as other people walk out of the restaurant and the valet pulls up with his SUV, they pull away and he takes the keys from the valet.  He holds the door open for her, and she slides in.  He smirks to himself because he’s actually got this beautiful girl.  Paying the valet a tip, he gets into the driver’s seat and finds himself totally admiring the lustful look on Abigail’s face.

Then he realizes he hasn’t said her name at all tonight.  So, he whispers, “Abigail . . .”

“You better be taking me back to your place, Ryan.”  Grinning and turning the engine on, he puts it in drive and speeds out of there.  They quickly make it to his place -- technically, it’s his home away from home since he lives with everyone at the penthouse -- and he holds the front door open for her.  

As soon as he’s shut the door, he has her against the wall, kissing her lips and pinning her hips to the wall.  He hears her giggle against his lips and drop her purse against the floor, and he really didn’t realize how much he needed this until he had a taste of it.  She goes to take his suit jacket off, but he grabs her wrists and pins them above the wall all the while kissing her neck and sucking just hard enough to leave a pink mark.

“Oh, god, that’s fucking hot,” she moans, and he ruts his hips against hers.  Then he pulls away, lifting his head and hands so that he can unzip the back of her dress.  The top of her dress slides down her shoulders a little bit and reveals more of her breasts, and he almost starts drooling.

“Goddamn, Abigail,” he whispers, quickly pulling his jacket off and starting to untie his tie.  She grins as he tosses his tie away and she threads her fingers through his sandy blond hair, yanking him back for another kiss.  While they entangle their tongues, Abigail immediately giving up dominance to let Ryan have it, he runs his hands down her sides to grab her thighs and pick her up.  She immediately wraps her legs around his hips, and he thrusts against her, sporting a semi-hardon.  

Then he carries her to his bedroom and gently drops her against the bed.  She smirks devilishly at him while he quickly unbuttons his shirt and gets rid of it.  Then he takes her dress off, taking the time to study her beautiful body.  She spreads her legs just a little more, and he slides his hips in between them to kiss down her neck and the rest of her body.  

He pauses at the waistband of her panties and makes eye contact with her, silently asking for permission.  She breathlessly nods her head, so he pulls her panties off and immediately starts sucking at her clit.  She throws her head back and moans, finding herself so satisfied even though she hasn’t had an orgasm yet.

Another hour later, she’s lying against the mattress and trying to catch her breath.  He’s lying beside her and smirking at her.  They’re both stark naked, having both just come down from their orgasms.  “I wouldn’t mind doing that or dinner again,” Abbi breathes, looking at him with this smug look on her face.

“I wouldn’t mind doing breakfast, lunch, dinner, or  _ dessert like that  _ again,” he replies, leaning over and kissing the side of her lips.  She smiles at him, and they have this moment where time stops.  They just stare at each other, and she rests her hand on his cheek, studying him like she might have to leave this moment and never get to enter it again.

Then his phone that he had put on the nightstand goes off, so they both look away, sitting up.  “Is this your bathroom?” she asks while he grabs his phone.  He looks over at her and nods his head.  “Thanks.  I’m going to take a shower.”

“Feel free.” 

While she’s going into the bathroom, he checks the text that reads, “We totally ruined his warehouse - Gav.”  He quickly sends a text back, “Thanks for letting me know - V.”

After a moment, he gets a text from Ray, “How’d your date go?”  He sends one back to Ray, “I think I’m going on another one with her.  She’s fucking amazing.”  Then he stands up and pulls his boxers and pants on, going down to the kitchen to get some water.  When he gets back, she’s already out of the shower and getting her clothes back on.  She’s tied her hair up and looks like she does when he sees her in the garage.  There’s no makeup on her face, she looks natural.  And it shocks him even more than seeing her in makeup did.

He hears a phone going off, but then he realizes it’s not his.  “That’s mine, it’s in my purse downstairs,” she says, rushing downstairs.  “It’s Alex, I think.  That’s not good.”  He follows her to the front door and she quickly answers it.  “Abbi Robertson?”

“ _ You need to finish fucking or whatever you’re doing and get your ass over here.  They hit Jeremy’s place. _ ”  She looks at Ryan while nodding her head.

“Yes, I’ll be there as soon as I can.  He has to drive me there.”

“ _ Well, hurry your ass up. _ ”  Then Alex hangs up, and Abbi pulls her phone away from her ear, frowning at the screen.

“I’ve got to get home.  They’re being rather immature and lit my kitchen on fire,” she tells him, leaning down and grabbing her purse. 

“Yeah, let me go grab my shirt.”

“Grab my shoes, too.”  He quickly gets back upstairs, gets dressed, and grabs her shoes and his phone.  Then he gets back downstairs and they get into his car, Ryan quickly taking Abbi home.  They get there, and she stays in the passenger seat for another moment.

“Let’s do this again,” he mutters, looking at her.

She smirks, “Of course.”  She gives him this lingering kiss and then gets out of the SUV, shutting the door behind her.  He watches her and waits to make sure that she gets in.  Then he heads out, grabbing his phone and calling Gavin. 

As soon as Gavin picks up, he asks, “Is Rimmy Tim dead?” 

“ _ As far as I can tell, yeah _ .”

While Ryan’s speeding over to the penthouse, Abbi walks into the chaos that is her crew and family.  Trevor’s got a hold on Jeremy’s hand as Aren and Matt hold him down and Alex digs through his torso to find the shards of bullet.  Jeremy is letting out loud groans and grunts, flinching and squeezing Trevor’s hand.  “What the hell happened?” Abbi growls, tossing her purse to the side.  

Lindsay, who was at Jeremy’s warehouse with him, Trevor, and Matt playing video games, answers, “We were playing video games, and then they came in and started shooting at everyone.  They planted a bunch of bombs, and we just ran.”  Abigail frowns deeply, grabbing a remote off of the coffee table and chucking it as hard as she can at the television.  Andy, Maybelle, and Jarius flinch while she brings her hand up to her mouth to cover her mouth.

“Do we need to go into serious surgery mode?” she mutters, and Alex nods her head.

“Yeah, we really do.”  Abbi takes a deep breath and then turns to everyone.

“Andy, go downstairs, get the big box beside the freezer down there along with the IV stand.  Alex, go get the medical gloves from the bathroom,” she commands, picking up the wooden coffee table that she shouldn’t have been able to pick up.  The two run off to grab what she told them to, and she clears all of the stuff off of the table by dumping it into the front room.  She puts it back down and looks at Jeremy.  “J, we’re going to have to move you to the coffee table so we have a good surface.  It’s going to be painful, but you’re going to be okay.”

He nods his head and says, “I know.”  Alex comes back into the room as Abbi looks at Matt and Trevor.

“We have to move him.  Be gentle as possible.”  They both nod their heads, and she helps them.  He grunts a ton as they place him down and Andy comes back up from the basement.  Alex gives Abbi a pair of gloves and then pulls a pair on herself.  “Give Andy a pair, he’s going to help,” Abbi states, setting the IV bag up.

As Alex complies, Lindsay informs Abbi, “As far as I can tell, it only punctured his appendix.”  Abbi nods her head, opening the box of medical tools.  Trevor and Matt’s eyes widen at the sight, but Jeremy just squeezes both of their hands to keep them focused on him.

“Alex, you down to scrape some appendix out of him?”  Alex gives her figurative mother a disgusted look, but nods her head.  “Andy, you’re going to hand us tools as I call for them.”  Andy nods his head and gets ready to do what he needs to.  Abbi quickly gets the IV working, and then she takes a deep breath, pulling a surgical knife out of the box.  “Trevor, get rid of his shirt,” she commands, “Aren, Matt, get ready to hold him down.  Maybelle.”  Maybelle looks away from the blood on Abbi’s couch into her green eyes.  “I need you to make sure he’s breathing and has a pulse the whole time.”  She nods her head, stepping away from Jarius and getting ready to do her job.  “Alright, Jeremy.  I don’t have painkillers or any anesthesia to give you, so you’re just going to have to brave this out.”  Jeremy nods his head while Matt and Trevor both get nervous.

“We can’t do this,” Trevor breathes, and Abbi looks down at him.

“You want him to live or not?”  It shocks everyone that it’s not Abbi who says it, it’s Alex.

“I want him to live.”

“Then shut the fuck up and hold him down.”  Abbi’s eyes widen, and then Alex takes the knife from her hand.  “You’re going to be alright, J.”  Then she starts cutting him open, and he almost immediately passes out from pain.

A little over three hours later, Jeremy’s all stitched up resting on Abbi’s bed, Matt and Trevor are watching over him, Maybelle and Aren had left after they were sure Jeremy was alright, and Lindsay, Alex, and Andy had all washed up and were sitting on the porch.  Abbi quickly finishes getting redressed and walks out to the porch, looking down at where the three were sitting.  “Where’s Meg?” Abbi asks, leaning against the door frame as they leave the door open to air out the smell of blood.

Lindsay quietly answers, “She was out with her friends, doesn’t even know this happened.  She texted me like an hour ago to tell me she went home with someone.”  Abbi hums, retying her hair.  “Did you sleep with your guy?”

Abbi’s silent for a moment before she answers, “Yeah.”  Lindsay nods her head approvingly while Alex turns her nose at the comment and Andy just picks at his fingernails.

Then Trevor walks out onto the porch, leaning against the railing and crying silently.  “We could’ve died.   _ He  _ could have died,” he states, and Lindsay, Andy, and Alex look up at him apologetically.  

Cracking her knuckles and keeping her eyes on the street in front of them, Abbi replies, “They’re going to wish he and the rest of us did.”  Trevor turns to look at her, and she meets his eyes.  “You still in it?” 

“I need some fucking revenge, don’t I?”  Abbi grins and nods her head.


	10. New Masks, New Enemies, and New Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Abbi helps a friend, encounters her enemy, and makes a new friend.

Over the next few days, Trevor and Matt stay at Abbi’s house to keep an eye on their boy.  Lindsay stays at her boyfriend’s house to just rest and rehabilitate.  Meg goes on two dates with the boy she slept with and finds that she really likes him.  Abbi and her kids go back to work and get started on some new cars while finally finishing Gavin’s car.  They stay quiet and calm about the shit the Fake AH Crew pulled on Jeremy and Trevor’s warehouse, but it’s on the fourth day after that the itch under her skin really starts bothering Abbi.

“I need to talk to Jon Risinger,” she mutters, throwing one of her knives into the air and then catching it.  Aren frowns as he carries a box of different parts into the garage on a dolly.

“The journalist?” Jarius asks, doing the same as Aren.

Rubbing her eyes since she still hadn’t caught up on sleep after the night they had, she answers, “Yeah, apparently the Vagabond visited him.  I need to find out what he wanted.”

Jarius opens his mouth to ask another question, but Maybelle walks in with a package from some clothing store and cuts him off before he can even begin, “Why do we have a package from a retail store?”  Abbi’s ears perk up and she uncovers her face.

“Pass it to me.”  Maybelle tosses it to her and they all watch as she cuts it open with her knife.  She pulls whatever is in it out and grins widely.  

“Is that one of those studded leather jacket?” Maybelle questions while Alex and Andy walk through carrying a large box.  Abbi nods her head, standing up and pulling it on.  Andy and Alex come back as she sips it up and looks in the reflection of Gavin’s car.

“You look really good,” Alex tells her.  Abbi grins at the younger girl and pulls her hair from under the jacket.  “Why’d you get it?”

“As people give more of their attention and allegiance to me, I have to make sure there’s _absolutely nothing_ that can lead to me,” she explains, smirking at them.  They all nod their heads, and then they get back to dragging different parts into the garage.  “Andrew!”  Andy stops before he walks back out and he turns back to her.  “In the desk in the front, there’s a card with Ryan’s name and his number on it.  I need you to call that number and tell him that Gavin’s car is ready.”  Andy nods his head and walks into the front office while the bell above the door rings.

“Hey, Andy.”  

“Hey, Trevor, Jeremy.”  Abbi looks over to the doorway as Trevor and Jeremy walk into the garage.  Her eyes widen when she sees Trevor’s platinum hair.  

“What the fuck did you do?” she asks while taking her studded leather jacket off.

Trevor grins and answers, “Bleached it.”  Jeremy smiles, but stumbles a little.  Abbi steps forward to catch him, but Trevor just wraps his arm around his waist and holds him to his side.  “I told you that you should be resting,” Trevor states, and Abbi watches the two, smiling at them.

“I can’t stay inside forever, Trey,” Jeremy defends himself, resting his head on Trevor’s shoulder.  That makes Abbi smile even wider.

“So, what are you guys doing around here?”

Trevor answers, “I want to get a mask for the next time we run a heist.  We thought you might want to give some advice.”

Abbi nods her head and leads them to the back office.  “Where did you want to head?” she asks, setting the jacket on her swivel chair and grabbing her wallet off of the desk.

“Wherever you got your mask.”  She turns back to them with a wary look on her face.  “What?”

“Jeremy, you might want to sit out for this one.  If you want to go, you need to be very careful and ready to move quick if we need to,” she tells them, and Jeremy looks up at Trevor.  “This is a dangerous place.  The only reason I go there is because the people there know and like me, but I have to keep my gun on me the whole time I’m there because not everyone does.”

“I want you sitting this one out,” Trevor decides for Jeremy.

Jeremy frowns and says, “That’s not fair.  This should be my decision.”  

Abbi speaks up, “Jeremy, _I_ want you sitting it out.”  Jeremy spins to glare at her.  She adds, “You’re hurt already, I need you to stay safe.  If you’d like to help out, you can go out with me later when I go to figure out what’s going out with Jon Risinger.”  Jeremy thinks about it for a second, and then he nods his head.  “Alright, we’ll drop him off at my place and then we’ll head out.  Is Matt there?”

“Yeah, he should be.  He left like twenty minutes ago to grab some groceries, and we told him we would be out for a little bit,” Trevor answers, and Abbi nods her head, following them out to the front office.

She stops to talk to Andy.  “Hey, I’m not going to be here when Ryan gets here.  Just give him the car and see if he needs anything else,” she commands, and Andy nods his head.  Then she, Jeremy, and Trevor walk out.

After an hour and a half, Trevor drops Abbi back off at the garage.  They see that Ryan’s still there with some of his friends.  Before Abbi can get out, Trevor stops her and tells her, “Be careful around this Ryan guy.  I’ve seen him before, I don’t know where, but I have.  Just don’t let him trick you into anything.”  Abbi stares at him for a second before nodding her head.  “Anyway, thanks again, Abbi.”

“Of course.  See you when I get home.”  He hums and she gets out of the car.  Waiting for him to drive off before she crosses the road, she catches Andy’s joyful eyes.  They smile at each other, and then she jogs over.

“How was it?” Andy asks, knowing where she went.  She looks at the six people standing in front of Andy watching her before looking back at him.

“Shady as always.  You know the deal.  Anyway, how are you guys?  I wasn’t expecting you to still be here when I got back,” she says, turning to the six.  She recognizes Jack and two guys that had come with Ryan one time, but there were two standing on either side of Ryan.  She meets Ryan’s eyes and sees that there’s a jealous tint in them.  Fighting the urge to roll her eyes, she looks at the five others.

The dirty blond man who had a cast over his arm and Abbi didn’t recognize says with a heavy British accent, “Thanks for working on my car.  I don’t know what I would have done if I had to get a new one.”  Abbi looks at him with a gentle smile.

“You’re welcome.  You’re Gavin, right?”  The man smiles and holds his hand out to shake hers.

“Gavin Free at your service.”  She grins and nods her head.

“Abbi Robertson.”  They let go of each other’s hands.

The man covered in tattoos with the amazing mustache tells her, “I’m Geoff Ramsey.”  She recognizes the name, but she doesn’t say anything about it as she shakes his hand.

“Jack,” she greets, and Jack smiles brightly at her.

“How are you doing, Abbi?”

“Pretty good, what about you?”

“Just following everyone around.”  Abbi chuckles and nods in understanding.

Then the guy with the curly auburn hair who was there with Geoff and Ryan that day introduces himself, “I’m Michael Jones.”

As she shakes his hand, the guy in the purple hoodie introduces himself, “I’m Ray.”  She doesn’t really care that he doesn’t tell her his last name, just glad that she’s finally been introduced to all Ryan’s friends.

She shakes his hand and tells them, “It’s nice to meet you all.”  As Gavin starts telling her how he’s been really excited to meet her since Ryan talked about her all the time, she totally avoids looking at Ryan.  They all talk for about a half an hour before Geoff decides they need to head out.  Everyone leaves Ryan and Abbi alone to talk.

He starts, “So . . .”

She smirks and finally meets his eyes again, “You jealous?”  He rolls his eyes, but nods, and she chuckles.

“Watching you get out of the car with that guy . . .”  She raises her eyebrows as he trails off.

She explains to him, “He’s one of my business partners.  We went out to eat and discuss some things.  He’s just a friend who pays me to fix his gadgets and work for him occasionally.”  He hums and nods his head, stepping forward and grabbing her hands.  She smiles at him and shakes her head at him.

“What?”

“I wouldn’t have slept with you if I was planning on doing something else.  I don’t give myself out like that.  It’d do you good to learn it.”  He looks at her for a moment before leaning forward and kissing her lips.  They kiss for a moment before he pulls away.  “Was that a ‘yes, ma’am’?”  He smirks down at her.

“I didn’t know you were kinky like that.”  She just gives him an amused smile.  “Yes, ma’am,” he says with a grin.  She winks at him, and then the horn in Gavin’s car honks, and they glance over there to see Ray pressing down on the horn.  “Dumbasses,” Ryan mumbles while turning back to her.  She smiles at Ray and Gavin for a second before turning back to Ryan.  “Come over tonight.”  She thinks about it, deciding that she could pay Risinger a visit tomorrow.

“Yeah, I’ll be there around nine.”  He nods his head and starts walking toward the cars.  She purses her lips and watches him as Aren comes out with a piece of paper to show all the problems with the new car someone had just passed in.

Around six that night, Abbi gets back to her house and finds Jeremy lying on the couch and watching Matt and Trevor play something on her Xbox.  She smiles at the way the two playing the game keep turning back to the injured one for approval.  Then they notice her as she shuts the door.  “Hey, Abbi,” Trevor greets as she locks the door and walks into the living room.

“What are you guys playing?” she asks, standing in the doorway between the front room and the living room.

“Sniper Elite.”  Abbi hums, tossing the jacket she got today on the swivel chair in front of her computer.

“Yo, I’ll play y’all in Warioware,” she states, and they all stare at her with wide eyes.

Matt is the one to ask, “The one on the Gamecube?”  She smiles and nods her head.  “Yes, let’s do it.”  

As Abbi stands up to get the Gamecube out, she informs them, “I can only play until eight thirty, then I’m heading out again.”

“Are you going to talk to Risinger?” Jeremy asks excitedly, pushing himself up and wincing a little.

“No, that’s tomorrow.  I’m hanging out with a friend tonight,” she explains, quickly setting the Gamecube up.

“ _Boyfriend_?” Matt asks suggestively.  She looks back at him with an amused look on her face before shaking her head and turning back to the Gamecube.

“No . . .  Well, I don’t even know.  We went on a date, we’ve had sex, I’ve met all his friends, he’s technically met all mine,” she murmurs, knowing she shouldn’t really be speaking about it with them, but letting it just slip from her mouth.  “Whatever, it doesn’t matter,” she adds, letting the Lone One push Abbi’s feelings away.

Then she stands up and turns to them.  “Change the HDMI to four and we’ll be good to go.”  They play for two hours, changing the games every once and awhile, before Abbi notices that it’s twenty-five minutes before nine.  “Shit, I go to go.  You guys can keep playing, just make sure you clean up before you go to bed or whatever it is you guys do.”  They all give her noises of confirmation and she chuckles as she grabs her bike helmet and goes into the garage.  Pulling her helmet on, she starts her bike and presses the button of the remote on her bike to open the garage door.  Once she’s out in the driveway, she presses the button again and the garage door closes.

Then she heads over to Ryan’s place, not too far from her house.  She gets there three minutes after nine, but she doesn’t really care, having a feeling that Ryan doesn’t care either as long as she actually shows up.  So, she puts her bike on the top of the driveway and carries her helmet with her up to the porch, knocking on the door.  She waits, just studying all the things she hadn’t noticed the first time she had been here.

It takes a few moments, but Ryan pulls the door open and smiles at her.  A smirk graces her lips as she lets her eyes run over his shirtless torso.  “Hey, hot stuff.”  He smiles even wider and pulls her into the house, planting a lustful kiss on her lips.

A little over two hours later, he’s making her some food since she hadn’t had dinner and she’s lying naked on his couch.  She’s looking through all of the games that he has for his Xbox and PS4 and finding that he has so many more games than her.  While she’s getting up to look through them, he calls, “Hey, my friends want to hang out with you.”  She pauses in her movement, turning to the kitchen.

“The friends I met today?” she asks, walking into the kitchen.

“Yeah, Gavin was really excited to meet you,” he tells her, while she checks his naked backside out.  He puts the scrambled eggs that he made her beside the bacon he had already made her on the plate and then notices she’s in there with him.  

“I mean, as long as they don’t have the same privileges as you do when it comes to _hanging out_.”  He grins and shakes his head.

“There’s no way they would be living if they did.”  She giggles as he turns the stove off and turns to her, kissing her passionately.

The next day as Abbi’s giving someone’s shit car a paint job that really won’t make it any better, she keeps thinking about the dangerous game that she’s playing with Ryan.  She knew it from the beginning that she shouldn’t get involved, but the good part of her can’t stop herself.  The good part of her loves feeling young like she does when she’s with Ryan.  So, she ignores the evil part of her that wants to push everyone away and really thrive in the loneliness she gets her name from.  She ignores the war that’s going on in her mind between the anger and the hope.

Jeremy coming in all on his own without any help draws a pause from that war, and she turns to look at him.  “Where’s Trevor and Matt?” she asks, checking her watch and seeing that it’s the end of the work day.

“They’re looking for another apartment to move into.  I thought you might want to get a headstart on Risinger and surprise him when he gets home,” he explains to her as she wipes the paint off of her hands and starts putting the paint away.  “Why were you wondering about Matt and Trey?”  

She turns and answers, “Because you got shot a few days ago, and I’m worried about you.”  And the man who was similar to Andy in the way that he could never really stop moving stops moving for just a second because he realizes that the woman who he thinks is behind the Lone One actually has feelings and cares for him.  “I gotta take care of my people, Jeremy.  You’re one of them, just as much as Maybelle or Jarius is.”  He looks down and nods his head.  “You confident you can handle what we’re about to do, J?”  His brown eyes meet her green ones again, and that foot that he’s always got tapping starts tapping again along with all the fingers on his right hand.

“Yeah, boss.  I’m ready to get back to work.”

“So, you think you can be the intimidator while I’m the interrogator?”  He nods his head, so she hums in approval.  “You got your outfit with you?”  He nods once more.  “Go get it and come to the back room to get changed.”  He walks out and she walks to the back room, opening the secret room and walking into it.  While she’s changing out of the shorts she was wearing into the olive green skinny jeans that the Lone One always has on, Maybelle walks into the room with this look on her face.  “Yes?” Abbi asks as she buttons the jeans and puts a belt through the belt loops.

“Please be careful.  Yeah, you’re our boss, but you’re also our mom.”  Abbi turns to look at Maybelle with a sincere look on her face.

Jeremy walks in with his stuff and quietly excuses himself as he brushes past Maybelle.  Both Maybelle and Abbi quickly get back to their conversation, ignoring that he’s there.  Abbi promises her, “I’ll be careful.  This one shouldn’t even endanger us.  It’s just talking to the guy and seeing what he knows.”

Maybelle shrugs her shoulders, brushing her hand through her brown curls, and she says, “Yeah, but what if he’s brave enough to call the cops?  Or what if he has contact with the Fake AH Crew?”

“We’ll handle it,” Abbi replies confidently, “Jeremy and I work well together.  We’ll be in and out.”  That makes Maybelle look over at Jeremy, and Jeremy nods his head in confirmation of what Abbi had just said.

“Okay.”  Then she lets out another sigh, and Abbi steps forward to hug her.  The younger girl hugs her back, letting her figurative mother give her comfort and reassurance.

“You’ll see me back here tomorrow, I promise.”  Maybelle nods again, and then they pull apart.  They nod at each other once more before Maybelle walks out and goes back to what she was working on with Aren.

“Wow, you really do have feelings,” Jeremy teases, and Abbi laughs and throws a rubber band for her hair at him.

About thirty minutes after they left the garage, Abbi finds herself sitting on Jon Risinger’s really comfortable couch and Jeremy finds himself waiting beside the door.  “You want to get some dinner after this?” Abbi asks in the Lone One’s voice, her stomach growling.

“Fuck yeah,” Jeremy answers as they hear Risinger’s car pull up.  Then they both go silent, Abbi crossing one leg over the other and Jeremy sitting up straight.  After a few moments, the door gets pushed open, and Jeremy squeezes tight so that he can’t stop the door from hitting the wall.  Jon walks in and closes the door behind him, and that’s when Jeremy gets him.

Jeremy yanks the backpack from his hand and tosses it to the side before pinning him up against the wall directly across from the door.  And even though Jon’s got about five inches on Jeremy, Jeremy still has the strength to lift him up and off the floor.  Jon’s hands immediately go into the air like he’s surrendering.  “Holy shit, okay.  This happens way too much,” he breathes, not even looking at Jeremy to realize that it’s Rimmy Tim who the Vagabond had told him was dead.

“Rimmy Tim, bring him in here,” Abbi commands, and Jon swallows thickly and makes eye contact with _thee_ Rimmy Tim.  Jeremy lets Jon down from the wall and then drags him into the living room to sit in the chair that they had taken from the dining room to place across from the Lone One.  Jon sits in that chair and breathes heavily as Rimmy Tim stands behind him and places his hands on his shoulders.  And then he realizes that he’s sitting across from _thee_ Lone One with her mask and all of its designs.

“You’re the Lone One.  You’re a woman.”

She stands up and says, “Confirming one of your biggest theories about me, right?”  His blue eyes widen when he realizes that she’s got a Batman type voice going, but he nods his head to answer her question.  “But I’m pretty sure you have bigger theories about the Vagabond, right?”  He nods again, and she hums, the hum not being picked up by the voice changer.  “I heard you’ve been talking to him lately.  Why is that?”

Jon takes a deep breath before answering, “He’s offered me protection for as much information as I can get on you.”

“It seems we’re offering you more protection that he is right now.  What do you need protection from?” she responds.

“Everyone has a past.”

“Hmm, it would seem that you’re right.”

Then someone else walks through the front door, and the three of them look over to see the Vagabond walking through the door.  Abbi’s eyes widen because this is the first true encounter she’s had with this legend of a man, and Jeremy’s eyes widen because this was the guy that tried to kill him.  “Oh, dear god,” Jon mumbles, because he might actually die.

“Rimmy Tim, go,” Abbi commands, pulling her Kukri out.  Jeremy stares at her for a second before believing that she’ll be fine and running out the backdoor which they had come through.  The Vagabond rolls his eyes, pulling his own combat knife out.

“He was dead.”

Abbi grins behind her mask and says, “He’s Rimmy fucking Tim, he’s a fucking legend all over America.  You think _you_ could kill him?”

“Is that why you’ve recruited him?  Because he’s a _legend_?” he asks her, and she tilts her head, getting a little angry that he thinks she’s that shallow.

“No, I enlisted him because he can kill someone.”  Jon quickly moves out of the way as she lunges at the Vagabond.  She goes to stab him, but he dodges her and grabs her by her throat, slamming her into the wall.  She gasps for breath and quickly regains it.  He goes to slide his knife right through her skull, but since she has her welding gloves on, she just grabs it from him and slips out of his grasp.  Tossing it across the room, she slams all her weight into him and sends him through the wall right beside the door.

While she has the chance, she runs out of the house and jumps into the Armored Rim which Jeremy had just pulled up in.  Quickly they speed off, and Abbi turns her voice modulator off and pulls her mask off.  “He didn’t get ya anywhere, did he?” Jeremy asks, taking his Stetson off along with his sunglasses.

“No, but he was pretty close to burying that knife of his into my skull.  He fucking had me up against the wall by the throat,” she snarls, and he knows that she’s not angry at him, just angry that the Vagabond had showed up so inconveniently.  “We’re not telling my kids about this.  You understand?”  Jeremy nods his head as he quickly drives to his garage that was separate from his warehouse.

“Seeing him in the flesh was kind of terrifying,” Jeremy admits as he pulls into the garage.

“I honestly never thought I would have to,” Abbi says, both of them getting out of the car.  Then her eyes widen once again that night as she sees all of the purple and orange cars he’s got sitting around.  “This is impressive, Lil’ J.”

Then his stomach growls and she looks at him.  “Let’s go get some dinner,” he requests, and she chuckles, nodding her head.

Meanwhile, back at Jon’s apartment, Ryan’s making sure Jon is alright.  “They didn’t hurt you?”  Jon shakes his head.

“No, but I thought you said Rimmy Tim was dead,” Jon responds, looking at the huge hole in his wall.

“I thought he was,” Ryan defends himself as he grabs his knife off of the floor.  “And I thought you said she didn’t use knives.”

Jon shrugs his shoulders, “I’ve never seen her up close enough that she actually has to use hand-to-hand combat like that.”  Ryan sighs, looking over at the huge hole in the wall.  “I’m not going to be able to pay for that.”

“I can,” Ryan offers.  Then he adds, “She’s strong.  She’s much stronger than I thought she would be.  If she’s that good at hand-to-hand combat, we’re going to have to step up our game.”

“What happened to her working alone?” Jon asks, and Ryan shakes his head.

“We think she had to call in some people because she thought we were too much.”  Jon nods in understanding.  “She’s also got Axialmatt, so we’re pretty sure she’s got a hold of Trevor Collins, too.”  Jon sighs again.  “From now on, we’ll keep a better eye on you.”

Then it’s around nine that night that Jeremy and Abbi are carrying the bits of food that they didn’t eat out of the restaurant in the city that they went to.  It’s sprinkling a little bit, so both of them have the hoods on the sweatshirts that they’re wearing up.  “That was really good,” Jeremy says as they walk to the parking garage that Jeremy’s black SUV is parked in.

“It was delicious,” Abbi agrees.  Then she notices a door across the street open up and a young girl practically fall out.  She narrows her eyes as someone shouts abuse at her about how she’s pathetic and not good enough for them.  Then the door slams shut, and the young girl just lets her head fall.

“What was that about?” Jeremy whispers, and Abbi hands him her takeout box.  She checks both ways before jogging across the street.  Jeremy stops where he is on the sidewalk and just waits for Abbi.

The older woman kneels down in front of the young girl -- sixteen years old maybe, looks like she could be Alex’s younger sister with the same mixed skin tone as her and same type of curly hair -- and the young girl lifts her head to look at her.  “Hey, kid, I’m Abbi, what’s your name?”

The girl stares at Abbi for a second before stating, “You run that garage in the suburbs.”  Abbi nods her head even though the girl clearly knows.  “You’ve taken kids in.”  And Abbi nods her head again.  “I’m Trinity.”  And Abbi almost swears this has to be Alex sent from the past because that was almost how Alex had reacted to her.

“Trinity, do you need a place to stay?”  The brown-eyed girl nods her head, so Abbi stands up and holds her hand out to help her up.  Trinity takes it and stands up.  “You see the guy over there watching us with the takeout boxes?”  Trinity nods her head, so Abbi continues, “That’s my friend, Jeremy.  He’s going to take us to my house.  He and his two friends are staying with me right now.  Are you okay with that?”  Trinity nods her head again, so Abbi wraps her arm around the girl’s shoulders and crosses the street with her.

“Is everything alright?” Jeremy asks as they get over to him.

“Yeah, we’re going to take her home.  She’s going to stay in my room until you guys head out.  Her name’s Trinity by the way.”

Jeremy doesn’t have to look down at her because she’s about the same height as him, and he says, “Hey, kid, I’m Jeremy.”

“You’re Monster Truck.”  Both Jeremy and Abbi freeze when they hear they say that.  “I’ve been to a bunch of your matches.  One of the guys I used to live with fought you a lot.  I have to say, I always liked you more.”  Jeremy grins and looks at Abbi.

“I like her.”  Both Trinity and Abbi smile at him.

Then Abbi says, “Alright, let’s head out.”


	11. Heist Plans and Hangouts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the midst of planning a new heist, Ryan surprises Abbi and her new adoptive daughter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!!!! Constructive criticism is always welcome of course.

The next morning, Abbi, Jeremy, Trevor, Matt, Meg, Lindsay, and Alex are all gathered in Abbi’s living room.  They’re all talking quietly because they know that Trinity is upstairs sleeping in Abbi’s bedroom still.

The night before, Abbi had shown Trinity all of the house, had introduced her to Matt and Trevor, and had made sure she had everything she needed before she went to bed.  Then Abbi had come down to the living room and set up a makeshift bed to sleep in for the next few nights.  Though Abbi didn’t get much sleep and it bothered her back, she wouldn’t complain about it because she was sure Trinity needed it more than she did.

“She’s like a spitting image of you, Alex.  Like it was like I was picking you up again,” Abbi informs Alex as they all sit in the living room.

“So, you’re saying she knew about Jeremy?” Meg asks, and Jeremy nods his head.

“She knew my wrestling name and everything.  Apparently, Tom Rocker was someone she stayed with, and he and I used to fight all the time,” Jeremy explains, and they all nod their heads.

Abbi speaks up because she can feel the worry radiating from Matt and Trevor, “But we knew that was going to happen.  We’ve never really hidden Lil’ J’s identity.”  Everyone nods again.

“Tell us more about what happened with the Vagabond,” Lindsay requests, and everyone really starts paying attention.

Abbi tells them, “It was a simple run, really had no danger to it at first.  We were going to talk to Risinger, figure out what we needed to, and be out.  Which reminds me, Lindsay, I need you to figure out all you can about Jon Risinger’s past.  Apparently, the Fake AH Crew’s protecting him from something.  But anyway, we figured out that Jon was feeding the Vagabond information about me in return for his protection.  We hadn’t even had a good conversation before the front door opened again and the Vagabond walked in.”

Jeremy interrupts her to add, “He was like six feet tall, and if you think I’m packing, he was terrifying.”  Abbi nods her head in agreement before continuing.

“I told Jeremy to get out, and he did.  Then the Vagabond asked me if I enlisted Jeremy because he was a legend in all of America, and I told him that I got Jeremy because I knew he could kill someone.  Then we went at it.  I tried to stab him, but he dodged it and got me against the wall by my throat.  He went to stab my right in between the eyes, so I grabbed the knife out of his hand and tossed it to the side.  I got away from him and shoved him into the wall, then I ran.”

“Oh, my god, that’s terrifying.  Was he really scary?” Meg asks, and Abbi shrugs her shoulders.

“When you’ve been doing this as long as I have, nothing really scares you.”  Then Abbi notices Trinity standing on the stairs and watching them.  She stands up and greets, “Good morning, Trinity, do you want some breakfast?”

“Are you the Lone One?”  And this girl just keeps surprising her.  “I saw your old helmet in your closet when I woke up.”

Abbi looks down at the floor before looking at her and answering, “I am.”  Then Trinity breaks out in a grin.

“I know I liked you for a reason.”  Abbi smiles and walks out to meet her in that front room.  “Do you have any cereal?”

“I’ve got Cinnamon Toast Crunch.”

“Yeah, that sounds good.”  So, Abbi puts together her small breakfast and then Trinity sits in between her and Jeremy as they continue talking.

“So, what are we going to do about him?”

“We have to plan a heist,” Jeremy states, and Abbi nods her head.  “We should hit another one of their warehouses.  Totally raid it out and leave them dry.”

Abbi thinks it over and nods her head again, “Whose warehouse do we want to hit up?”

“The Kingpin’s,” Jeremy answers again, and Abbi looks over at him with this smile.

“You continue to exceed my expectations, Lil’ J,” she tells him.  Then she turns to everyone else, “I’ll put together the plan within the next few days and we’ll hit it off.”  Then Meg and Lindsay head one way, Alex heads her own way, and the rest of them stay at Abbi’s house.  While Jeremy, Matt, and Trevor are teaching Trinity how to play a bunch of different video games that Abbi has, the woman herself is planning the raid out.

She rubs her face as she realizes that it’s really not going to be simple to get in there, and it’s going to be even more complex to get out.  Jeremy walks through the dining room to get to the kitchen, but stops when he sees the plans she has so far.  “Maybe we should leave through here instead,” he suggests, pointing at the layout of the building that he had gotten for her.  She furrows her eyebrows until she actually thinks it out.

“Thanks, J.”  He nods and goes into the kitchen while she makes a better plan.  After a while, she decides that she has most of it planned out, so she stops and goes into the living room.  She stands there and watches them play Crash Bandicoot.  “I still can’t believe they remastered this,” she states, and Trinity looks up at her.  “I used to play this when I was a teenager.  I was nineteen when it came out.”

Trevor chuckles and says, “I always forget how old you are.”

“Thanks, jackass.”  Trinity giggles as she sits down on the floor.

“You wanna give it a try, boss?” Matt asks, offering the controller over to Abbi.  She shakes her head, crossing her legs by her chest and wrapping her arms around them.

“I played enough of that when I was hiding out from the LSPD before they were corrupted,” she explains.

Trinity asks, “Are the rumors true?”  Abbi raises her eyebrows and hums inquisitively.  “Were you the one to corrupt the cops?”

“I wish I could take credit for that,” Abbi chuckles, looking down at herself.  Then she looks back up at her.  “No, some of the guys from the New York mafia came around asking me if it was alright to plant some guys.  I said why the fuck not?  So, they had a few guys that went in and totally corrupted the whole thing.  Back then, _everybody_ worked for me.  I guess losing a following just comes with age.”

“It comes with slowing your killing sprees down,” Jeremy mutters, and she looks at him instead.

“You think?”

“Yeah, totally.  I mean, when was the last time that you killed thirty people just to do it?  The last time that you killed someone was because they stood up to you while you were stealing money,” Trevor tells her, and both Matt and Jeremy nod their head in agreement.  Abbi purses her lips as she thinks over what they were implying.

“The last time you did that, you still were wearing your bike helmet,” Trinity mutters, and the four look at her.  “What?  Every kid has a fantasy that they’ll encounter their favorite superhero.  Mine just happened to be the Lone One.  I knew that the Lone One would pick up kids and give them a place to stay.  They were in her inner circle, and it used to be a big thing with the kids that she picked up to fight over who would be heir to Los Santos.  But then suddenly all the kids somehow got college degrees and were off to better places, and she stopped taking kids in.  I guess I just had a fantasy that one day the Lone One would take me away from the hell that I was living.”

“The Lone One kills people because they make just a little noise.  Why would you make her your superhero?” Abbi asks with a big frown on her face, not really noticing that it’s the first time she’s felt disgusted with herself in so many years.

“Because back in the day, she looked out for the impoverished and got rid of the bad people that were already corrupt.  She was a _real_ superhero,” Trinity explains, “Sure, things might have changed over the years, but I refuse to believe that the real her left.”  Abbi licks her lips before nodding her head.  Then they don’t talk about it again for the rest of the day.

The next morning, Matt, Jeremy, and Trevor go out apartment hunting, and Abbi and Trinity stay home.  Trinity sits on the island in the kitchen while Abbi makes her breakfast.  “So, what happened to those kids?” Trinity asks, picking at the thread on the pajamas that she was wearing.

Abbi thinks for a moment before admitting, “They were kids that I could no longer take care of.  I didn’t have the money nor the time.  That was back when I was running heists every week.  So, I sent them where they could learn to take care of themselves.  I gave them a chance at a life they wanted and deserved.  They didn’t deserve to be chased or leading the same life that I did.  And one of them came back.   _Aren Hooper_.  He really believed that he needed to come back and help his _mother_ out.  But he brought back a girl with him.   _Maybelle Regal_.  She was four years younger than him, already involved in the criminal life as a getaway driver.  They both claimed they were in love, but they were two idiots who just clung to each other because they understood only each other’s desires.  And then, we went out to eat one night, and _Andy McMinn_ was a waiter there.  Before Maybelle, he had been my youngest, and I thought he had actually made it through college.  Turns out, he quit halfway through and was just giving the money that I sent him to a boys’ home.  And then we went to visit that boys’ home, and _Jarius Gillop_ was there.  Andy was eighteen, Jarius was sixteen, and they both liked explosions and stupid video games.  So, Jarius left with us, snuck out and ran.  And that’s it.”

“What about Alex?”  Abbi freezes because that’s a dark story that she didn’t like to tell or even think about.

Then the doorbell rings, and they both turn.  “That’s a story for another time.  Get those eggs onto your plate and turn the stove off,” Abbi tells her, walking to the front room.  She checks through the peephole and then yanks the door open.  And in all of their glory stand Ryan, Ray, Geoff, and Jack with big grins and bags from Dunkin’ Donuts and bouquets of flowers.

“We brought breakfast,” Ryan says happily.  Abbi chuckles and shakes her head, moving out of the way so that they could come through.

“You think you brought enough for another human being?” she asks, and all four of them nod their heads in confusion.  Abbi shuts the door behind them and calls, “Trinity, throw the eggs away.  Some friends are over, they brought breakfast.”

“But I wanted eggs,” Trinity groans as she throws the eggs away.  Abbi chuckles and leads the four into the kitchen.

“Dunkin’ Donuts is better than my shitty eggs,” she says, and the four of them set their flowers and bags of food on the table.

“Whoa, the fuck?” Trinity exclaims as she slides out of the way.

“Hey, watch your language,” Abbi scolds, grabbing plates out of the cabinet.

“You just said shitty,” Trinity defends herself.

Abbi raises her eyebrows at the young girl and says, “Yeah, but I’m fourty years old and you’re fourteen.  I’ve got a few notches on my belt, work on getting your own.”

“Well, that’s hardly fair.  Whatever, who are these people?”

“Manners, Trinity.”  Trinity rolls her eyes.

“My name’s Trinity.”  Abbi nods her head in approval.

Ray replies, “I’m Ray.”  The rest of them go around and introduce themselves.  And though it’s a very brief moment, Trinity gets caught up on Ryan for a second.  But then she quickly moves on like nothing had even happened.

“So, what are you guys doing around here?” Abbi asks as she and Ryan put together plates of food for everyone.

Jack answers, “Got bored just sitting around.  We wanted to do something fun.  So, we thought, what could be more fun that hanging out with Abbi Robertson at eight thirty in the morning on a Sunday?”  Abbi stops what she’s doing and gives Jack a big smile.

“That sounded like a passive aggressive compliment.”  Jack just smiles and nods her head.  Abbi chuckles and shakes her head.

Ray looks down at Trinity – not too far down – and asks, “So, you like any video games, Trinity?”

“Yeah, you should come see the ones Abbi has,” Trinity says, leaving the kitchen and leading Ray to the living area.  Abbi smiles at the fact that her new kid is already getting along with people and gets back to putting food on plates.

“So, who is that?” Geoff asks.

Abbi thinks for a moment before answering, “She got kicked out of her house on Friday night while a friend of mine and I were coming out of a restaurant.  I just happened to see it, and apparently, it’s well known throughout this part of Los Santos that I help kids that have been kicked out of their homes or need a place to stay.  So, she trusted me, and I took her here.  Now, she’s staying with me.”

“That’s six kids now, isn’t it?” Jack questions, and Abbi tiredly nods her head.

She adds, “Pretty soon, I’m going to be too old for this, and they’re going to start popping out kids of their own.”  Jack and Geoff give each other this look while Ryan chuckles.  “I’m almost getting to the point where I can barely get under a car and work on it.”

Ryan replies, “Oh, you’ll be fine.”  She turns to him with an amused look on her face.

“I’m going to get stuck under a car one of these days, and you’re going to have to pull me out,” she tells him, and he shrugs.

“I wouldn’t mind.  That’s my job.”

“I’ll pay you five dollars every time you do it.  That’s already making my money inflated,” she tells him, handing two plates to Geoff.  “Take that to the two children in there.”  Geoff takes the two plates and takes care of it.  “And these, my lovely delicate flower, are for you and your man,” she says, giving two plates to Jack.

Jack smiles and says, “You’re already my favorite person.”  Abbi smiles and gives a mock bow.  Then Jack leaves the room, and Abbi turns to look at Ryan.

“What are you looking at, hot stuff?” she asks, handing him a plate and leading him back into the living room.

“I’m looking at you, gorgeous.”  She grins and turns back, catching Ryan right as he goes to kiss her.  She hums into the kiss as the others all look over at them.

“Ew!” Trinity exclaims, “The old people are kissing!”  Both Abbi and Ryan pull away and look at her as Ray, Geoff, and Jack laugh at her joke.

“I’m going to beat you to death.”

“Please do.”

About two hours later, Ryan, Ray, Geoff, and Jack are gone, and Abbi’s sitting down with Trevor, Jeremy, and Matt.  They’re cleaning up Abbi’s sloppy plan, something that Abbi usually did by herself.  Trevor’s pointing out most of the flaws, and Jeremy’s giving her ways to fix those flaws.  “You think this is really a good idea?” Abbi asks Jeremy once they’ve finished.

“Yeah, they won’t be expecting it.  They really won’t be expecting us to go after the Kingpin.  His thing is that even though he likes to lay low, he has so _much_ stuff in his warehouse,” Jeremy answers, and that makes Matt and Trevor turn to them.

“Where are we going to put it?  How are we going to transfer it?  Then what are we going to do with it afterwards?” Trevor asks.

Grinning at them, Abbi answers, “I own a semi-truck.  We can get Maybelle driving that instead of a getaway car.  I know a few people that would _love_ to help us put it in the truck.  I also know a place we can store it.  And as for what we’ll do with it afterwards, I like to think of myself as a charitable person.”  That gets the three of them excited.

Then Trinity walks in from the living room with the PS4 controller in her hand.  The four adults look at her, and she says, “I can’t beat this Crash level.  Will someone help me?”  Jeremy chuckles and nods his head, following her back into the other room.  Abbi smiles and turns back to the plans.

“So, when are we going to do this?” Trevor inquires.  Abbi thinks for a moment.

Matt throws in his advice, “I think we should do it in the middle of the night or something.  Isn’t he the one that doesn’t have people there at night?”  Trevor nods his head, and Abbi realizes she’s just going off of their knowledge for this one.

“You guys pretty much orchestrated this whole thing.  You realize that, right?” she asks.  They look down at her in confusion.  “You gave me the map of the building, you guys fixed my plan up, you keep prompting stuff out of me when I don’t realize I’m not giving enough information.  You guys are basically bringing the whole thing together.”  

“You’re right, you’re getting old,” Trevor jokes, and she rolls her eyes and shakes her head while Matt laughs and Jeremy comes back into the dining room.

“Do we have everything in order?”

“Yeah, we’ll have a meeting in the next few days about it,” Abbi declares, leaning back in her chair.  “I just don’t feel like doing anything about it right now.”  The three nod their heads while she pushes herself up and walks into the living room.  “Hey, what do you want for dinner?” she asks Trinity, standing there, putting her hands on her hips, and watching her play Crash Bandicoot.

“What are you offering?”  The blonde woman looks down at the young brunette.

“Well, we can go out, I can cook something, it just depends on what you want,” she informs her, grabbing the coffee mug off of the table and smelling the gross looking liquid inside it.  She grimaces and pulls it away from her face.

“I don’t really care.  I just don’t want to go out.  We already had something today from a fast food place.” 

“Alright, you want sandwiches?  You want burgers?  What do you want?”

Trinity pauses the game, looks up at her, and says, “Can we have pasta?”  Abbi nods her head and walks into the kitchen to put the mug in the sink and get started. 


	12. Graffiti and Breakfast Casserole

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Lone One and her companions pull the heist, and Ryan decides he needs a little love to rid himself of stress.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's a bit short. It's definitely rushed, sorry. I still hope you like it.

The Lone One stands in the back of the semi-truck with Rimmy Tim, Dollface, and Treyco.  She hums as she gets the shotgun she’s got ready.  “Hey, Tuggey?” she says into the coms, leaning against the wall as the truck is jostled around.  “You got updates on Trinity?”

Lindsay answers from where she’s situated in the back of Abbi’s Garage, “Andy texted me ten minutes ago that she and Jarius had passed out after playing a ton of games on his Xbox.  And, uh, I knocked all the security cameras at the warehouse.”

“Sounds good, thank you.”

Matt, who is on top of a building near the Kingpin’s warehouse looking through the scope on his sniper rifle, says, “So, from what I can tell . . . there’s one guard, and he’s just doing a sweep check.”

“Thanks, Matt,” Trevor replies.

From the driver seat, Maybelle informs them, “We’re pulling up.  Be quick.  The guys are already here.”  And everyone inside the back of the truck stands up and gets ready.  Abbi takes a deep breath, standing at the back of the truck.

She looks back at all her crew members, and they look back at her.  She asks, “You ready?”  The three of them nod their heads, so she turns back, yanks open the door, and they jump out.  Immediately, all the guys that she had gotten a hold of to help her move everything into the truck get out of the cars they had come in.  She nods her head at them.

Lindsay informs her, “Just got rid of the rest of the security system.”

Abbi pulls open the big loading dock door and tells everyone, “Go, go, go!  Treyco, Dollface, and Rimmy Tim, get the different entrances.”  The men, and a few women, who were going to move the random shit that the Kingpin had run in and immediately get started.  The three crew members run in to cover the doors.

About half way through the helpers’ quick process of moving the stuff, at the penthouse that everyone in Ryan’s crew lived in, Geoff’s phone on his nightstand rings.  Beside him, Jack sighs and jabs him in the side.  “Get your fucking phone,” she growls, and Geoff sighs in exasperation, blindly grabbing for his phone.  He gets it and answers it.

“Ramsey?”

One of the goons that he had hired answers, “Sir, the whole security system at your warehouse is out.”  That wakes Geoff up.  Jack frowns as the older man stands and starts pulling clothes on.

“Okay, I’ll go check it out.  Thanks, uh . . .”

“Steffie.”

“Thanks, Steffie.”  Then he hangs up and looks over at Jack.

“What’s wrong?” she asks tiredly.

He takes a deep breath so that he doesn’t get angry with her and answers, “The whole security system is out at my storage.  You wanna come with me to check out?”

Jack sighs and shakes her head, telling him, “Just make Gavin go and come back to bed.”  Geoff grumbles something and shakes his head.  Taking the gun off of the nightstand, he decides to go to the person he knows will help him take care of this. 

He heads to Ryan’s room and gently knocks.  It takes a moment, but Ryan opens the door, trying to block Geoff’s view of the room.  But he can still see one of the many tiny cactuses he has on his desk.  “Security system’s out at my warehouse.  Come check it out with me.”  Ryan nods and grabs his mask from somewhere right beside the door.  Then they walk out into the living room together and find all the lads right there.  Michael looks up at them while Gavin and Ray just continue paying attention to the video game.

“Where are you guys going?” Michael asks with a grumpy look on his face.

While they stop to let Ryan get his mask on, Geoff responds, “Gotta do a late night security check.”   That makes Michael even more grumpy while the two oldest of the crew walk out of the penthouse.

“We taking my car or yours?” Ryan questions when they get to the garage, and Geoff nods toward his own car.  So, they get in and get ready for the ride.

And while they’re pretty close to finishing up taking all the important things from the Kingpin’s warehouse, Abbi grabs her welding tool from the cab of the semi-truck.  She walks back into the warehouse and turns it on, writing out a message on the wall with it.  Once she’s done, she sets the tool against the wall and stands back to look at her work of art.

**_There are consequences for hurting people I need_ **

That message is written across the wall and beneath it is her symbol – the number one with a circle around it. 

Then Matt comes in over the coms, “There’s a car coming, you guys better finish up.”

“Thanks, Matt,” Abbi says before turning to the helpers.  “Alright, wrap it up!  We’ve got to head out!”  They finish up within three seconds, and Abbi hands the leader – the only one brave enough to actually speak to her – three large wads of cash.  Then she, Meg, Jeremy, and Trevor make sure the truck is locked up enough.

Meg gets in the cab with Maybelle, and the other three squeeze into the back.  The helpers all quickly speed away and Maybelle starts driving.  “Lindsay, put the security systems back up and get me an update on Trinity,” Abbi commands, turning her voice modulator off.

“Andy just texted me saying that she’s still asleep, and the security systems are going back up in three, two, one . . .  It’s done.”

“Thanks.  Matt, you good?”

“Yeah, if you could circle around and pick me up, that’d be great.”  So, Maybelle does so, circling the block and waiting just long enough for Matt to jump onto the side of the cab.  Then they’re off to a place that Abbi said she had.

Meanwhile, Geoff parks his car in front of his warehouse and he and Ryan get out.  They stand there for a second, listening for anything odd, and then they walk into the warehouse.  Immediately, Geoff’s stomach drops when he sees how empty the place looks, but the first thing Ryan notices is the message sprawled across the wall along with the blowtorch on the floor.  “Holy shit, there’s nothing here!” Geoff shouts while Ryan walks over to the blowtorch and grabs it.

“Geoff, what do you need me to do?” Ryan asks while Geoff tries to come out of his shock of losing almost everything.

“We gotta kill her.”  Ryan nods his head while Geoff pulls his phone out and calls Jack.  “No matter what, Ryan.  _Nothing_ is going to stand in our way.”  Ryan nods his head again as the phone rings.

Then Jack picks up, “Was it just a power outage?”

“Jack, the only thing that’s here is the bed set and the vanity I just bought for you.”  While Geoff and Jack talk through their shock, something on the floor near one of the exits catches Ryan’s eyes.  He walks over to it, kneels down, and grabs it.

As he stands and inspects it, he realizes that it’s like a calling card for Dollface.  “She’s got more than just that little trio,” he calls to Geoff.  Geoff turns to him, telling Jack that he’s got to go, and hangs up.  “Dollface’s calling card,” he declares, tossing the little plastic Harley Quinn looking face at the older man.  He catches it easily and inspects it.

Geoff tells him, “She’s willing to take everything, Ryan.  We have to do something.”  Ryan nods his head in agreement.  “I’m going to have to call Gavin in here so I can get a better security system going.  You can head out,” his boss tells him with a strained voice.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to hunt her down?”  Geoff sighs and shakes his head.

“We’ll do it tomorrow.”  The Vagabond nods his head before turning and walking out of the place.  He takes the car, knowing that all of the lads will be there in a little bit with another car.  He gets back to the penthouse, and Jack’s the only one home.

She immediately starts worrying, “Was it her?  Is he alright?  Are you alright?”  He takes his mask and jacket off.

“Yes, to all three questions.  But it wasn’t just her and that trio.  Dollface participated in it, along with some helpers I would assume.  They weren’t there that long, according to Geoff.  He said Steffie sent him some time stamps,” he informs her, running a hand through his hair that was getting longer.

Jack frowns and follows him to his room, asking, “How do you know?”

“She left a calling card, like the Lone One does.”  He changes into some pajamas while she stands in the doorway.

“Where are you going?” she questions, seeing him put some shoes on.

“Going to Abbi’s house.”  She nods her head and he grabs the key to his car.  Ryan turns to walk out of the room, but stops when he stands right beside Jack and looks down at her. “Geoff’s really angry.  Just be gentle with him when he gets back.  Don’t ask him questions or anything.”  Jack nods her head, so Ryan continues out of the room.

“Be careful, alright?”  He turns back to her and nods his head.

“You know me.”  Then he walks out, getting to his car and travelling over to Abbi’s house as quickly as he can.

When he gets there, he walks up to the porch and knocks on the door.  He hears her shouting, “No, she’s up in bed.  I just put her there . . .  No, the truck is at the warehouse!”  Then she comes to the door and pulls it open, her green eyes almost widening immensely when they see that it’s him.

“Hey . . .” he trails off when he sees Jeremy Dooley coming down the stairs.  What was Jeremy Dooley doing here? 

Ryan looks back at Abigail and sees that she’s looking back at Jeremy.  “I thought you said you were going to bed,” she mutters before turning back to Ryan and gesturing for him to come in.  He walks in and she shuts the door behind him.

“Yeah, I came down to get some water for Trinity.”

“Why, what’s wrong?” Abbi asks, getting protective of Trinity as Ryan wraps his arms around her shoulders.

“Nothing, she just wanted some water.”  Abbi nods her head as Jeremy passes through the room.  Then she looks up at Ryan.

Lifting her hands to run them through his light brown hair that had just gotten a tad longer than the last time she had seen him, she questions, “What are you doing here so late?”  He sighs and kisses her head before kicking his shoes off.

“Long day at work.  Got home like twenty minutes ago, and I wanted to see you,” he tells her while her hands fall to wrap her arms around his neck.  “People annoy me, Abigail,” he whispers to her as Jeremy walks through the room with a glass of water.  Then he goes back upstairs as she presses a kiss to Ryan’s lips.

“We won’t be able to be in my room, Trinity’s got that room because Jeremy’s got the guest room with his buddies,” she informs him, walking into the living room where she’s got a makeshift bed set up on the couch.

Ryan follows her in there and inquires, “Speaking of, what’s Jeremy Dooley doing here?  With his _buddies_?”  As he sits down on the couch and Abbi grabs the remote control for her Blu-ray player from the television stand, she turns back and gives him a confused look.

“How do you know that’s Jeremy Dooley?”

“I used to go to his underground fights.  They were interesting and I liked betting on someone who I knew would win,” he explains, shrugging his shoulders as she sits beside him.  She gives him this look, but doesn’t really ask anymore, and he thinks that maybe he’s gotten away with it.

“So, why do people annoy you?” she asks, turning the television on but keeping the volume low.

He looks at her for a second, just studying her green eyes and blond hair, before answering, “Someone put up graffiti in Geoff’s warehouse and stole some stuff, so we had to take care of that.”  Abbi frowns and looks at him.

“That’s annoying.”

“Exactly.  So, I have to do some extra leg work tomorrow to make up for it because Geoff and the rest of them are going to be working on recovering the stuff we lost.” 

“Do you want me to go with you?” she offers, knowing that she doesn’t need to be at the garage for anything tomorrow.  He considers it for a moment before shaking his head.

“No, it’s going to be a little dangerous since it’s finding out who stole it.  I don’t want you getting hurt,” Ryan tells her, wrapping his arm around her and pulling her into his side. 

“Ah, man, that’s better than just sitting at that garage doing nothing.”  Ryan playfully rolls his eyes, and Abbi chuckles before they kiss again.  Then they just watch some television until both of them fall asleep.

And when Ryan wakes up the next morning, he finds that he’s lying on the couch alone, but he can hear a group of people talking.  He lifts his head and looks into the dining room to see several people gathered around the table and passing around food.  He sees Trinity, Jeremy, and all of Abbi’s kids, but not the woman herself.  He also sees who he recognizes as Trevor Collins and Matt Bragg.  He really starts to get worried as he realizes this is who Abbi is letting stay in her house.

Then Abbi comes in from the kitchen with a pan of breakfast casserole and sets it down in the middle of the table.  She makes sure everyone has something to drink before coming into the living room and standing above him.  “Hey, you want some breakfast?” the beautiful woman asks as she runs her nimble fingers through his hair.  He closes his eyes and sighs, nodding his head.

Though he knows he shouldn’t get much closer than what they are, he can’t help but think they could have a future like this.


	13. Something Personal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Vagabond takes advantage of his knowledge of Abbi.

Ryan doesn’t see Abbi for a few days after that, working on finding where the Lone One is.  It really frustrates him – and Gavin who is working with him – that there’s absolutely no lead on her.  They get into several arguments over nothing because of it, but it’s Jack that comes into Gavin’s room that they’re both in late one night that calms them down.

“Guys, maybe you should take a break,” she offers, and the pair shake their heads.

Gavin speaks up, “No, we have to find her.  We really can’t afford to let her take anymore from us.”  Jack watches them for a moment while he types wildly on the keyboard and Ryan stares at the computer screen.

“Then try looking up one of her companions.  You said that Dooley, Collins, and Bragg were hanging around at Abbi’s place.  Take advantage of that,” she suggests, and the two turn to look at the wise woman.  The red-haired woman frowns at the looks on their faces and asks, “What?”

“Christ, Jack, why didn’t you suggest that before?” Gavin exclaims while Ryan stands up, grabs his jacket and mask, and gets ready to head out.

He informs them, “I’ll be back in a little bit.  I’m going to figure out what’s going on.”  Before turning to each other, Jack and Gavin watch him leave.

“You think there’s a chance Abbi’s involved with anything?” Gavin suggests, and Jack shakes her head.

“No, she’s just offering them a place to stay.  She seems too pure to be involved with something like that.”

Over at the garage, Abbi’s sitting in her office looking up private tutors on the internet while Trinity is sitting across from her with her sketchbook in her hands.  On the way to the garage a few weeks ago, Trinity had mentioned something about her love of sketching, so Abbi had bought one and a few pencils for her.  So, the young black girl was realistically sketching the Lone One’s helmet and the older white woman was getting frustrated because she really couldn’t find what she needed to.

“Trinity,” she calls, and the fourteen-year-old girl looks up at her.  “When was the last time you went to school?”

Trinity thinks for a moment, kicking her feet that were draped over the chair beside the one she’s sitting in, and answers, “Second grade.”

“Why’d you stop?”

“The guys I was living with had killed my parents, but had this weird soft spot for kids, so they took me in.  But they told me that I wasn’t worth paying for an education.”  Abbi narrows her eyes as she looks back at her laptop.  “I don’t really remember my parents all that well because they weren’t around a lot and I had a nanny.  But they treated me better than those guys did.”  Abbi looks back up at the girl who she had just taken in and could see that she was distraught.  So, Abbi stands, crosses the room, and stands in front of Trinity.

“Come here,” she whispers, opening her arms.  Trinity sets her sketchbook down on the chair and stands almost as tall as her new guardian.  Wrapping her arms around the fit woman and letting a few tears fall, she buries her face in Abbi’s neck and sniffles.  Abbi frowns at the thought of the girl being unhappy and gently rubs her back.  “You’re here and safe now, kid.  They won’t get near you again, angel.”  Trinity nods into Abbi’s neck and stays there for a moment before pulling away.

As Abbi wipes her cheeks, Trinity informs her, “My middle name’s Angel.” 

Abbi smiles gently and tells her, “It suits you.”  Trinity smiles back at her, glad that she’s found someone who will care for her.

Then Matt peeks his head his head into the office, and the duo look at him.  “Hey, we’re going to the house and we have a copy of the new Worms game.  We were wondering if Trinity wanted to come beat our asses at it.”  Trinity smiles and looks up at Abbi for approval.  And because she’s quickly learned that she can trust the trio with her life, Abbi smiles and nods her head.

“Awesome, you guys are totally going to lose,” Trinity says, grabbing her sketchbook and pencil and running out with him.  Abbi smiles and walks to the doorway to watch her new kid walk off with Trevor, Jeremy, and Matt.  Then she sighs and leans against the doorpost, rubbing her eyes.

Aren’s the one to ask, “You alright, Abbi?”  Letting her hands fall, Abbi looks at the one kid of the group who looked like they could actually be her kid and hums inquisitively.  “Are you okay?” he rephrases, and she slowly nods her head.

“It’s just hard being a mom.”

He chuckles, setting the bottle of wiper fluid down, and says, “You’re the one that keeps taking these kids in.”

“She needed me though.  She would’ve been alone out on the street if I didn’t take her in,” Abbi replies.

The blue-eyed man shrugs his shoulders and states, “She would’ve found someone.”  That makes Abbi narrow her eyes.

“What are you getting at, Aren?”  And Jarius, who was replacing the windshield wipers on the same car Aren was working on, looks up to see what the discourse is about.

“I’m just saying that maybe right now it was a bit dangerous to take her in.”

But Abbi doesn’t fully believe him.  “Or are you just saying that because you don’t like her?”  Aren scoffs and shakes his head.

“No, I’m saying that with what we have going on with the Fake Achievement Hunter Crew, it probably wasn’t the best idea to bring in a stray who probably has some serious PTSD,” he tries to explain.

But Abbi quickly comes up with an argument, “First of all, there is no ‘ _we_ ’.  You have nothing going on with the Fake AH Crew, neither do I.  _The Lone One does_.  Second of all, _you_ were a stray and I took you in.  You were in the same boat as Trinity is, homeless and alone.  Do not act like she’s some animal, because she is very far from it.”

“You act like she’s more important than the rest of us.”  And Abbi makes eye contact with Jarius who had tried to get both Aren and Maybelle off of the track of jealousy.  The two look at each other for a second before Abbi looks back at Aren.

“Are you seriously jealous of a fourteen-year-old girl?”  Aren just stares back at her.  “She is a _child_ who needs my help.  You are an adult who I gave my help to when he was a child and I still give my help to though he could probably be off somewhere else doing something _much different_ with his life.  Be careful which road you choose to walk down, Aren, because you may lose that help.”  He continues to stare at her while she walks out to the front room where Andy’s going through some of the paperwork.

“Hey, Mom,” he mumbles, glancing up at her for a brief moment.

“Hi, Andy,” she replies, rubbing her nose and looking over his shoulder to see the paperwork he was going through.

“Will you take a look at this one?” he requests.  Taking the packet from him, she reads over the all the information and licensing.

Then she notices something.  “This says the guy was born in 1902.”

“That’s what I noticed.”

She just rolls her eyes and hands it back to him.  “Who cares as long as he pays.”  He just chuckles and sticks it back in the pile of the paperwork for the cars they’re working on.

Then he puts all the paperwork down and looks at her, murmuring, “You look like you’ve lost weight.”  She looks at him in confusion, so he explains, “Your face is thinner and your ring is fixing to fall off of your middle finger.”  Looking down at her right middle finger, she sees the ring slipping forward, so she pushes it back to the base of her finger.

“I probably have lost weight recently.  I’ve been running around a lot because of all the stuff going on and I haven’t been eating as much as I normally do.”

Andy frowns as she grabs the stool from under the desk and sits on it.  He tells her, “You gotta take care of yourself despite being busy, Mom.”  She nods her head in understanding.

“Yeah, but I can afford to lose weight.”

“No, you really can’t.  You’re at a good weight as it is.  It’s really better if you don’t.”  Abbi shrugs as the door opens.  They both look up, fully expecting to have to do some more paperwork.  Instead, it’s just Ryan grinning at them.

Both of them leave the previous subject behind as Andy exclaims, “Hey, man, what’s up?”

“Just making some runs, what about you, Andy?” Ryan replies while Abbi comes out from behind the desk and hugs him.

“Making money.”  The older man chuckles, rapping his arms around Abbi and holding her to his chest.

“I’ve missed you,” she mumbles, leaning her head under his chin.

“I know, I’m sorry, I’ve been working really hard.  But I came today to see if you wanted to go on another date tomorrow,” he responds, kissing the top of her head after he’s finished speaking.

“Yes, of course.  What do you have planned?” she asks, pulling away and meeting his eyes.

He smiles, “That’s for me to know and you to figure out.”

She just gives him a gentle smile, “You don’t have anything planned, do you?”  He sheepishly shakes his head.  Andy bursts into laughter while Abbi just looks down and chuckles.  Then she stands on her tiptoes to peck him on the lips.  He closes his eyes and just smiles contently as she pulls away.  “I’ll plan something.  It’s my turn anyway.”

“I like you a lot, Abigail,” he says, opening his eyes.

She grins and replies, “I like you a lot, too, Ryan.”  Andy looks down and away from the two while they actually kiss this time.

Then, while Abbi’s pulling away, Ryan realizes there’s no teenaged girl running around with a sketchbook being oddly vulgar.  “Where’s Trinity?” he asks, glancing into the garage.

Abbi answers, “She’s off with some friends to grind through some video games.”  Ryan hums in understanding as Abbi sits back behind the counter and watches over what Andy’s doing.

“Alright, well, I need to get going.  I’ll see you tomorrow, Abigail.  Have a good day, Andy.”  Everyone bid their own goodbyes as he walks out.  It’s silent for a moment, both Andy and Abbi just going through the rest of the paperwork.  Then Andy picks up his head and looks at her.

“You don’t like people calling you Abigail.”

She meets his eyes and nods, “You’re right.”

“Ryan calls you Abigail.”

Letting her blond hair fall in front of her face to hide her blush, she admits, “I like his voice when he says it.”  Andy snorts, and she meets his brown eyes again.  “What are you laughing at?”

“You used to make fun of me for looking at Jarius with those heart eyes, and now you’ve got your own heart eyes for Haywood.”  Something about the use of Ryan’s last name strikes Abbi’s mind as familiar, but she pushes the thought out of her mind, just focusing on responding to Andy.

“It’s been a long time since I felt something like this for someone.  And I like him a lot, Andy.  I don’t want to give that up.”  Andy smiles and nods his head in approval.

“Jarius and I like him, Mom.  I think he’s good for you.”  Abbi grins and nods her head happily.  Then they both go back to looking over the paperwork.

She gets bored and sighs, “You can watch over the place, right?  I think I’m going to go hang out with Trinity and the guys.”  Andy nods his head, so she stands, pushes the chair back under the desk, and grabs her keys.  “Alright, I’ll see you tomorrow.  Hey, family dinner on Saturday.  Spread the word.”

“Yes, ma’am.”  And she walks out.

As she pulls up to her house on her bike, she slows down immensely when she sees the black SUV that had been at Jon Risinger’s house and her door wide open.  She parks her bike in her driveway and grabs her Lone One helmet out of her backpack.  Pulling her helmet on and turning the modulator on, she pulls one of her handguns out of her shoulder holsters, slowly and silently walks inside, and checks everywhere.  She finds that shit’s going down in the backyard with her sliding glass door in the living room open.

So, she stands in the doorway and assesses the situation.  Jeremy has his hands in the air, Trevor’s in front of Trinity blocking her, and Matt has his own gun pointed on the intruder.  And the intruder just so happens to be her current arch nemesis.

Silently moving towards him while he interrogates Jeremy, the Lone One lifts her gun higher to point it at the base of his skull.  Then the barrel of the gun makes contact with the back of his head, and he stops speaking.  “You’re in the wrong place at the wrong time, Vagabond.  Put your gun down.”

He starts slowly lowering his gun, but Trinity shifts, startling him.  He goes to raise his gun again, but Abbi wraps a tight arm around his throat and lifts her leg to wrap it around the arm that’s holding the gun.  She yanks his arm back so he can’t use it.  The only thing holding her up being the Vagabond’s impressive balance with her practically hanging off of his back, she commands, “Guys, get her out of here.”  Trevor leads Trinity out of the backyard, Jeremy follows, and Matt covers them before running after them.

Then the Vagabond yanks himself away from the Lone One, and she stumbles forward while he spins around and points his gun at her.  Quickly recovering, she pulls the other pistol out of her shoulder holster and points it at him.  “You’re not supposed to be here,” he growls, and she tilts her head.

“I have a friend that lives here,” she replies, covering for herself.

More viciously this time, he snarls, “You leave her and her daughter alone.”

“What do you think I’m going to do to her?  She’s my friend.” 

He shouts, “You don’t have friends.  You have people that you use because they’re _legendary_.  So, you can go to hell, and leave Abigail and her daughter alone.”

The Lone One steps closer to him, forcing him to take a step back, and she informs him, “You think that just because you tell me to do something, I’ll listen and do whatever you say.  You ought to rethink what you’re doing.  I like this little game we’re playing – that’s why I started it – but if you can’t control yourself, I’ll put you down like a rabid dog.”  And she’s really not expecting him to jump forward and grab her by her throat.

She drops both of her guns as he throws his to the side and slams her against the wall of the house.  Now that his right hand is free, it joins his left at her throat.  Both of her hands come to his wrists as she struggles for breath, and she pulls with all her might at his hands.  When they only just slightly budge, she brings her knee up into his groin.  He falls to the ground and she leans against the wall to catch her breath.

“Nutshots are illegal,” he groans, and she rolls her eyes.

“Yeah, so is killing people, but we do that all the time, don’t we?”  He kicks one of her feet out from under her, so she falls into a kneeling position on the ground.  “You fuck,” she mutters, leaning over to grab one of the guns she dropped.  Before she can reach it, he grabs her ankle and drags her back.  She squeals and kicks at his hands.  “Get off of me.”

“You hit me in the dick,” he responds, trying to grab her other foot to avoid being kicked.

“Because you were being one, you little bitch.”  There’s a sound of a gun clicking, and they both stop what they’re doing to turn and look at who’s pointing the gun at them.  Abbi grins behind her mask when she sees that it’s Meg.  She’s not really worried that Meg’s not in her get-up because Meg was known for being Dollface.

And in an even voice, Meg commands, “Get up, and get out.”  The Vagabond stands, and he and Meg stare at each other for a second before he jumps over somebody’s fence and runs.  While Abbi gets back on her feet, she watches to make sure that he’s actually leaving.  Then she turns back and meets Abbi’s eyes through the black lion mask.  “You alright?”  Abbi sighs and nods her head, pulling the mask off and turning the modulator off.

“Yeah, but I think I have to move.”

“He didn’t recognize you, right?”  Abbi shakes her head.

She informs Meg, “No, he thought the Lone One was going to hurt me and Trinity.  Told her to leave us alone.”  Meg nods her head, ignoring Abbi’s weird way of talking about herself.

“So, you just keep an eye on stuff, and try not to leave anything out.  I have a feeling he’ll be hanging around a lot.”  Then Abbi realizes something.

“Wait, why does he know me?”  Meg frowns, seeing that she hadn’t caught that either.

She suggests, “Maybe it’s just that he knows you take kids in, wants to protect you and them.”

“It sounded personal for him, called me Abigail.  There’s something I’m missing.”  Meg just shrugs, turns the safety on her gun on, and holsters it.  Then Abbi shakes her head, getting a headache just from thinking about it, and asks, “So, what are you doing around here?”

“Wanted to know about our next move.”  As they walk inside, Abbi and Meg get ready to comfort Trinity.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Posting one last chapter before my hiatus until January. I hope you guys like it. I think this one gives a sense that the Vagabond and Lone One are somewhat familiar with each other and interact differently. That's something I'm adding.


	14. Bad People and Good Dates

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Abbi, Trevor, and Trinity run into some horrible people.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's back! I'm excited to be off my hiatus!

The next morning, Abbi’s up shockingly early.  When Trinity comes down from Abbi’s bedroom to grab her sketchbook, she’s surprised to see Abbi rapidly doing pushups.  “What are you doing?” the young girl asks, leaning against the banister and watching Abbi.  The blond looks up at her, loses her focus, and falls flat onto the floor.  Trinity snorts and steps over her to go into the living room.  “Seriously, what are you doing?”

Abbi sighs and pushes herself up into a kneeling position, answering, “Yesterday, when he put his hands around my throat, I couldn’t pull them off.  I need to get stronger so that I can actually defend myself.”  Nodding her head in understanding, Trinity offers Abbi her free hand and helps her up.

“Try lifting weights.  He might be stronger than just your body weight,” she suggests, and the woman who had quickly become her motherly figure hums.

Then she asks, “What are you doing up early anyway?”

The African American girl shrugs her shoulders, “I always get up this early to sketch something dumb.  I used to get up this early to clean the whole house when I lived with Stan and Jamarcus.”  Abbi nods, silently giving Trinity the vibe that she could rant for eternity and Abbi would still be there listening.  “I hated living with them,” she murmurs, stepping forward and wrapping her arms around Abbi.

Abbi smiles, hugs Trinity back, and says, “Well, you’re here with me now.  That’s all that matters.”  Trinity just sighs and buries her face in the older woman’s shoulder.

Then Jeremy and Matt come rushing down the stairs.  Both of the girls turn to look at them.  “We’re going to look at an opening for an apartment we should be able to snatch up.  Should be back around lunch time,” Matt informs Abbi.  Then they leave, and Trevor walks down, sighing and running his hand through his hair.

“Fucking idiots,” he mutters, and Abbi chuckles while Trinity just falls onto the couch and starts sketching Trevor.  “But they’re my idiots.”  That makes Abbi smile wider while Trevor turns to look at her.  “They’re going to check out that apartment and hopefully sign a lease.  We should be out of your hair by tonight.”

“That quick?”  He nods his head.

“Yeah, we’ve been scoping that place out for a while.  Plus, Jeremy’s been getting . . . _excited_ . . . and he’s upset he can’t do anything about it.”  Abbi scoffs and shakes her head while Trinity’s face scrunches up in disgust.  “Anyway, what are you doing today?”

Abbi answers, “I’m going to yank my old Ferrari out, make sure it runs and is clean.  Then I have to start making a plan to retaliate on the Vagabond’s advances.  After that, I’ll drop squirt here off at Andy and Jarius’ and go for a date with Ryan.”  He hums.

“You have a Ferrari?”  The two adults look down at Trinity, and the woman nods her head.  “Can I see it?”

“Yeah, come on.”  She abandons her drawing of Trevor and they follow Abbi out to her big shed in the back.  They wait for her to unlock the big garage door and pull it open.  When they see the shiny red Dino Ferrari, they gasp.  Abbi informs them, “This is my 1969 Dino 206T.  It’s a few years older than me, but I’ve made sure to keep it in good condition.”

“How much older than you is it?” Trinity asks while she walks around to inspect it.

“Well, I’m forty now.  When was I born?” Abbi questions, exercising the young girl’s brain, while she turns and takes one of the old photographs she has pinned to the wall.

“1977.  So, like, eight years.”

“Right.”

Trevor looks at the black and white photo and questions, “Is that you?”  Abbi looks at the photograph of her mother sitting in the Dino Ferrari back when it was in mint condition.

“No, it’s my mom right after my father bought it.  My old man had a thing for black and white photos,” she explains, showing the photo to Trinity.

“You look exactly like your mom,” Trinity states, and Abbi chuckles.  She puts the picture back up on the wall.

“My dad left the car to me when he passed away, but I was only eight, so it stayed in a garage until I was thirteen and my brother had kicked the bucket.”

Trinity frowns while Trevor opens the driver’s door and gets in.  She inquires, “You said you and your brother were alone on the streets by the time you were eight and he was twelve.  What happened to your parents?”  Abbi looks at the teenaged girl for a second before ignoring the question and turning to Trevor.

“So, what d’ya think?”

“It’s amazing, when was the last time you used it?” he asks, running his hands over everything.

She answers, “I used it about fifteen years ago.  But I do come out here every few months and make sure it actually starts.  It probably needs some gas to actually go for a ride.”

Trinity, just naturally being curious, asks, “Why’d you stop using it?”

“You’re just full of questions today.  I guess that I just liked motorcycles better.  I liked riding by myself and not having a huge boat to take care of.”  Both Trinity and Trevor nod in understanding.  “Alright, I have to grab some gas so I can actually get this fucker running.”

She walks to the garage attached to the house, leaving Trinity and Trevor in the back garage.  While Trevor messes around in the Ferrari, just figuring everything out, Trinity looks at the other pictures Abbi has hanging.  “Do you know why she won’t talk about her parents?” she questions, looking at the old picture of Abbi as a very young girl sitting in her father’s lap.

He shakes his head, “She usually doesn’t talk about her family at all.”  Trinity hums, frowning at the black and white photo of Abbi at the age of twelve with a machine gun in her hands and a blank expression on her face.  “Don’t take it personally if she just refuses to answer your questions about her family.”

“Yeah, I don’t know why I was expecting her to answer.”

“Eh, she’s hard to figure out.”  They are silent for a while, and then she finds that there’s a letter pinned up behind all of the photos.

“What’s this letter?” she inquires, grabbing it.  Trevor doesn’t reply, just stands from the car and stands beside her to read the letter with her.  “Who is Damien and why is she so hateful toward him?”  She looks up at him and he looks down at her.  They both shrug their shoulders.  Then Trinity quickly pins the letter back up because they could hear that Abbi had just pulled back into the driveway on her bike.

“Get in the car,” Trevor commands and they both quickly get in the car.  Abbi walks back into the garage.

She declares, “Alright, I’ve got the gas.  It’s enough to get it running and to the station for some more.  Both of you get out of my car.”  The two get out while she opens the gas cap in the back.  Using the can that she had used to transfer the gas, she pours the gas into the tank.

“Are we going on a ride with you?” Trinity asks while she closes the gas cap and tosses the can to the back of the garage.

Abbi sighs as she walks to the driver’s seat and says, “Depends, how nosy were you while I was gone?”  The two look at each other with very revealing expressions on their faces.  That makes Abbi sigh again and drop her head.  “Just get in the fucking car.”  Trinity gets into the middle and Trevor climbs in after her, closing the door behind him.  “Grab the keys out of the glovebox,” Abbi demands.  Trevor does so and hands them to her.  She quickly starts the car, and all three of them cheer because they weren’t expecting it to actually work.  “Alright, let’s get this baby moving.”

Putting it in drive, she steps on the gas, but it doesn’t move.  “It’s on neutral,” Trinity whispers.  Abbi takes a deep breath and fixes it.  This time when she steps on the gas, it slowly rolls forward.  “I can already feel the flat tire in the back.” 

“Yeah, there’s an air pump at the gas station.  We’ll fill it.”  They make it to the gas station, and Abbi fills the tire first.  Then she drives around to the front.  Trevor goes inside to pay for the pump and Trinity talks to Abbi through her open window.

She asks, “So, what are you taking Ryan to do tonight?”

“We’re going to the top of Mount Chiliad to look at the stars.  I’ll probably bring some beer and food,” Abbi explains, and Trinity nods her head.  Then Trinity sees a big guy walking over, so she tries to curl into a ball.

Abbi looks over to where she was looking and frowns when she sees a big guy – short as Abbi, pretty heavy, looks like a racist asshole – walking over.  “Hey, Trinity, we’ve been looking for you, honey,” he states, giving the young girl an eerie smile.  Abbi immediately recognizes who this guy is; it’s either Stan or Jamarcus.

All Trinity says in response is, “Yeah?”

While Trevor comes out with a pack of beers that Abbi had asked him to buy, she asks the man, “Is it Stan or Jamarcus?”

“I’m Jamarcus.  And what is your name, pretty lady?” he replies smugly.  Pulling the pump out of her car and putting it on the hook, she makes eye contact with Trevor, who immediately pulls the gun he always has on him out of the back of his pants.

She just answers, “Abbi Robertson, nice to meet you, cunt.”  He goes to say something nasty to her, but Trevor comes up behind him and whips him in the back of the head with the butt of the gun.  He drops to the ground and Trinity pops her head out of the window to look at him with wide brownish-green eyes.  “Pop the trunk, baby doll,” Abbi requests, and Trinity looks at her for a second before complying.  The two go to grab the man, but another man walks over to them.

“Hey, what the fuck are you doing?”

“Stan, right?” Trevor asks, having overheard Abbi and Trinity’s conversation.  The man nods, so Trevor just lifts his gun and shoots him in the head.

“Holy fuck,” Trinity shouts while Abbi opens the trunk and Trevor nonchalantly moves toward Jamarcus’ unconscious body.  Abbi quickly moves over there and helps him carry the big guy to throw him in the trunk.

“Get in the car, get in the car, get in the car,” Trinity exclaims, jumping back into the middle as they close the trunk and run around to the doors.  Abbi grabs the beer that Trevor had set down on the way and hands it to Trevor.

Then they speed off, Trevor giving Abbi directions to a place where they can leave the guy and he won’t get away.  Once they make sure he’s securely bound and can’t get out, they had back to the Ferrari.  “Is he dead?” Trinity asks, staring in front of her, as the two get in the car.

Abbi looks at her for a second before answering, “No, he’s not.”

“Are you going to kill him?” the young girl asks, turning her head to look at Abbi.

“Will you be mad if I do?”  Trinity shakes her head, and Abbi nods hers.  Then she turns to the steering wheel and turns the car on, putting it in drive and getting out of Dodge.  They get back to the house and sit in the driveway for a second.  “He doesn’t like beer,” Abbi mumbles, pursing her lips.

“Who?” Trinity and Trevor ask in unison.

“Ryan, I forgot that Ryan doesn’t like beer,” Abbi sighs, getting back on the road.

Once they get him Diet Coke, do some chores around the house, and have some lunch, Jeremy and Matt come back.  “Guess who got the fucking apartment?” Jeremy shouts as he and Matt walk into the house.  Trevor and Abbi, who have beers in their hands and are watching Trinity speed-run through part of Crash Bandicoot, look over at them.

As Matt walks over and sits down beside Trevor, Jeremy walks over to stand behind them.  Trevor leans his head back, and Jeremy kisses his cheek.  Trevor scrunches up his face for a moment before smiling at Jeremy.  Abbi smiles and watches them for a moment before turning back to watch her new adoptive daughter play Crash.  “Wait, how do I get past here?” Trinity asks.  Abbi chuckles and explains it to her.

After Trinity finishes the second Crash Bandicoot game, she and Abbi help the trio pack their things up from the guest bedroom.  While they’re packing, Trinity makes sure to run the bed set from the guest room and the bed set from Abbi’s room through the wash.  It’s around six that they finish up getting everything into Trevor’s car. 

As they’re hugging and giving goodbyes, Trinity says to Jeremy, “You better come back and help me beat the last Crash.”  Jeremy chuckles and nods his head.

“I promise I will.”  They turn to Abbi and Matt.

Abbi commands, “You’ll be back tomorrow, right?”  Matt nods his head.  “Good, I want to keep tabs on you guys and it’s easier if you want me to.”  He chuckles and Trevor pulls his head out of the driver’s seat.

“Alright, we’ll see you guys tomorrow.  Are we staying for the family dinner?” Trevor asks Abbi.  She thinks for a moment before shrugging her shoulders.

“If you want to, you can.  If you’re going to, I’ll call up Meg and Lindsay, let them know.”

“Yeah, we’ll stay.”  Abbi nods her head.  Then she and Trevor do this complicated handshake that they’ve been doing since he was a young teenager and she was in her twenties.  The two brunettes that Trevor was in a relationship with watch, not so impressed since Trevor had taught them.  But Trinity stares with wide hazel eyes, having heard several stories of the Lone One doing that with her kids and people who followed her.

Then Trevor, Jeremy, and Matt get into Trevor’s car and they drive off.  The blonde looks down just slightly at the brunette and states, “You’re going to have dinner at Andy and Jarius’ after I drop you off.  We have to stop by Alex’s before I drop you off there.  Is that alright?”  Trinity nods her head.  “Alright, go grab what you want to take with you to their place.  If you want, you can take my laptop too.  Also, grab my keys from the coffee table.”  Trinity nods and sprints inside.  Abbi just takes a deep breath as she walks up onto the porch and starts fixing some of the furniture that had gotten out of place in the last few days.

Trinity comes back out a few moments later and tosses Abbi’s keys at her.  She catches them easily, locks the front door, and they walk to the Dino.  Getting in, Abbi turns the engine on and Trinity turns the radio on.  The two ladies sing Same Love by Macklemore and Mary Lambert while Abbi takes them to Alex’s apartment just outside of the suburban area.

Then, just because she doesn’t want to be alone in the car in some random parking lot, Trinity follows Abbi up to Alex’s apartment.  Abbi knocks on the door, and while they’re waiting for Alex to come answer the door, a woman walks out of the apartment right beside Alex’s.  “Oh, hey, Abbi, how are you doing?  Who is this?” the white woman, who seemed rather intimidating, asks.

Plastering what Trinity can see is obviously a fake smile on her face, Abbi replies, “Good evening, Ms. Dobbins.  I’m doing quite well, and this is my new step-daughter Trinity.  How are you, ma’am?”  The teenager tries to not let the surprise of how polite Abbi is being with this woman show on her face.

“I’m doing pretty good.  You still have your thing for _black_ children, do you?” Ms. Dobbins asks while Alex opens her door.  Trinity and Abbi give Ms. Dobbins the same disgusted look.

Alex immediately realizes what’s going on, so she says, “Alright, miss fucktard, go back inside before my mom punches you in the face.”  Ms. Dobbins scoffs, shakes her head, and walks back inside.  “God, I’m getting really sick of that idiot.  Come on in.”

“What a bitch,” Trinity mutters as she walks in and then Abbi walks in.

Their mother that looks nothing like them calls, “Hey, language.”

“I mean, I agree with her,” Alex states while Abbi closes the door.  The older woman turns and gives her a look.  Alex shrugs her shoulders, “Just saying.  The old hag is getting on my last nerve.”  Abbi sighs because she knows that the next-door neighbor is a hag, but she was trying to get the young girl that had come into her custody – yes, she knows it’s illegal – to watch her language. 

Alex falls back onto the couch and rests her arms on the back as Abbi pulls her wallet out of her back pocket and Trinity looks around.  “I like your aesthetic you’ve got going on,” Trinity says.  Alex looks at her in shock for a second.

Then she responds, “I like _you_.”  She looks up at Abbi with a big grin, “How come mini-me and I don’t hang out more often?”  Trinity’s eyebrows shoot up while Abbi continues pulling cash out of her wallet.

“Because you haven’t offered to keep an eye on her while I’m busy.  And whenever I go out usually, you’re the medic on hand,” Abbi explains, tossing a wad of cash at Alex.  She catches it out of the air.  “That’s twenty hundred you wanted in cash.  The rest is in your PayPal.”

“Thanks, Ma.” 

Abbi narrows her green eyes, watching her most mature child lean forward to set the cash on the table.  Letting her eyes relax, she asks, “What’s got you in a good mood?  You’re always so mopey, and now you’re acting like you own the world.  Which I’m totally cool with because you technically do, but what’s up?”

While Trinity wanders off throughout the apartment, Alex grins, leaning back and crossing one leg over the other.  “I’ve got a date as soon as you head out.”

Trinity just watches the two interact while Abbi smiles at her, “Yeah, boy or girl?”

“Girl.”

“Name?”

“Maria Avelizapa.”  Abbi racks her brain for anyone she might know named that and finds one person.

“Wait, like Daniel Avelizapa?  Like the guy I used to be in a crew with in when I was nine who used to beat the shit out of me?” she asks, really worried about who this girl is. 

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure that Daniel was her great uncle.”

“Connected by mother or father?”

“Mother.”

Abbi’s eyebrows shoot up, “Daniel killed Emilia a few years before Damien and I joined the crew.  How?”

“From what I understood,” Alex starts, “Emilia was fifteen when he killed her, but she was pregnant and had given birth right before.  Daniel wasn’t living with her because he was a full ten years older than her.  His initiation was to kill her and their brother.  He left, Victoria’s grandmother raised her, and then when Victoria was twenty-three, she gave birth to Maria.”  Abbi sighs at the history of the Avelizapa family, shaking her head.  “And right before you went on your final killing spree in the crew, Daniel went missing, right?”  Abbi crosses her arms over her chest and nods her head.  “Victoria had kidnapped him and killed the shit out of him.  She was younger than you when that happened.”

“She only turned eleven after I killed everyone,” Abbi states, shaking her head.

“I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow at the family dinner, but you have to go and so do I,” Alex replies, standing up and stepping into a tall pair of heels.

Trinity comes back into the room as Abbi nods, “Yeah, I’ll see you tomorrow.  Hey, what do you want for dinner?”

“I honestly couldn’t care less.  Whatever you think will be good,” Alex answers, flipping her hair over her shoulders.  Then she looks at Trinity, then back at Abbi.  “How’d you get here?”

“Pulled out my old Ferrari.”

Alex looks at Trinity and exclaims, “Kid, you’re lucky.  She made the rest of us walk everywhere.”

“Well, I would, but when the Vagabond shows up to wave his gun in our faces, I can’t really risk it,” Abbi explains, walking toward the door and holding it open for Trinity and Alex. 

While they’re walking out, Ryan is standing in his bedroom at the penthouse grabbing his hoodie, phone, and sneakers he’s going to wear.  He walks out into the living area of the penthouse where Gavin’s squawking about his game while the others just watch.  Michael notices him and says, “Hey, you got your date with Abbi tonight?”

“Yeah, I’ve got to hurry over to where she wants to meet me,” he replies, sitting down beside Jack and setting his shoes down.

“Hey, let me know how the banging goes.  I need someone to vicariously live through,” Ray says, and Jack and Ryan roll their eyes while the others chuckle.

“You’re a bunch of idiots,” Ryan mutters, pulling his shoes on.  Then he stands, grabs his phone, keys and hoodie, and waves.  “I’m leaving.  I probably won’t be back until late tonight.”

Jack smiles, “Have a nice time.  Tell her I said hello.”  Ryan nods his head and then leaves, heading over to his house.  He gets there, gets inside with his basket and hoodie, and is inside for only about seven minutes before his doorbell rings.

Quickly running over to answer the door, he does so and smiles when he sees his girl in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt.  “Well, hello, beautiful.  You come here often?” she greets.  He stares at her for just a second before coming forward and gently kissing her.  She smiles even though it makes the kiss slightly uncomfortable and pulls away, finding intimacy in their foreheads being pressed together.  “Hmm, I like this,” she breathes, “If I only had you to greet me like this whenever I came home from work.”

While she steps away to let him out of the house, he replies, “You want me to be your stay-at-home husband?”  She thinks about it for a second before nodding her head.  He shakes his head at her antics and quickly shuts and locks the door.  Then he turns to follow her off of the porch, but stops as soon as he sees the Ferrari.  “What the fuck?”

Already having walked down onto the walkway after the porch, Abbi turns and looks up at him.  She hums, “Yes?”

“Abigail, where the fuck did you get a Dino Ferrari?” he asks as he joins her on the walkway.

As they walk to her car, she explains, “It was my dad’s way back in the day.  When he passed away, he put it in his will that I’d get the Ferrari and my brother would get the mansion.  Of course, when my brother kicked the bucket, the mansion was also left to me, but I donated it to an orphanage.”  Ryan stares at the beautiful blonde woman while they get into the car.  “What are you staring at me for?” she asks, starting the car.

“You just like level up in attractiveness every time we get together.”  She looks at him for a moment, and in the back of her mind, the Lone One is like seizing while Abigail dances around with the sun on her face. 

They go up on Mount Chiliad and lay out a blanket to eat and look at the stars on.  Once they finish their food, Ryan just grabs Abigail’s hand and they talk about the everything and nothing and all the things in between.  Ryan tells her of some of his thoughts, and she finds herself to be more and more attracted to him.  And then the vice versa happens, where Abigail explains that she has one of the oddest and most unfortunate family lines and the way she explains her feelings for the events that her family has gone through causes Ryan to like her even more and more.

Then Ryan realizes that he has to piss and Abigail realizes that it’s getting to be a half an hour from midnight.  She waits for him to get back from doing his business to tell him.  “Oh, we should get going,” he says when she tells him.

He helps her up and they clean up.  She drops him off at his house and bids him good night with a kiss.  He walks inside, and she pulls back out of the driveway, heading towards Jarius and Andy’s apartment.  She gets there and walks up to the apartment, knocking on their door.  Checking her phone and seeing a text from Lindsay about some information she found about the Random symbol in the bank the other day, she decides that she’s glad Jeremy, Trevor, and Matt found their own place so that she can sleep in her own bed finally.

Then Jarius opens the door, and she puts her phone away.  “Hey, Ma,” he greets, letting her in.  He leads her to where Trinity is passed out on the floor in the living room.  “How was your date?” he asks as she kneels down beside Trinity.

Abbi looks up at him and smiles, “It was good, productive.” 

“Good, I’m glad.”  Andy, who was sleeping on the couch, flinches and wakes himself up.  He looks down and sees Abbi. 

“What fucking time is it?”

Abbi smiles gently, having done this several times when he lived with her, and answers, “It’s reaching on one in the morning.”  He looks at her for a second before sighing, stretching his arms, and falling back asleep.  Abbi chuckles and looks down at her daughter.  Gently shaking the girl’s shoulder, she states, “Hey, kid, wake up.”  She has to repeat it four more times before Trinity is clear and coherent enough to understand what she’s saying. 

Trinity, as she sits up, questions, “Is it cold outside?”  Abbi nods her head as Trinity stands and steps into her shoes.  Pulling her sweatshirt off, Abbi hands it to Trinity, who immediately wraps herself in it.

Then Abbi looks at Jarius, “Thanks, J.  If you want, I can pay you tomorrow at the dinner.”

“Nah, don’t worry about it.  She’s fun to hang out with, and you already pay us enough, so it really doesn’t matter.”  Abbi smiles and nods her head gratefully.

Then the two head home, both exhausted and ready to be in bed.  But before Trinity gets out of the car, Abbi says her name, deciding to reveal a secret she wasn’t keen on talking about, just keeping up the feeling of familial nostalgia. 

Trinity looks at her, and she says, “My brother . . .  when I was seven, my brother was involved with a crew called the Randoms, who I would later be included with against my own will.  He made some shit choices and his initiation into the crew was to blindside another crew.  The other crew didn’t like that, so they killed our parents.”  Trinity’s heart stops at the thought.  “They came into the house in the middle of the night, grabbed me and him, and forced us to watch them execute them.  You asked me how I lost my parents.  That’s how.”

“Abbi . . .”

“Trinity, don’t apologize.  It’s not your fault, and neither is it mine.  And though I’m over it, I’ve gotten my revenge and mourned what I needed to.  And today is the first day in a really long time that I’ve thought about it.  And for the first time in a long time, it feels okay to think about it.  I’m okay.  Even if I’m really not, I’ll be okay.”


	15. Death to the Perverted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Lone One brings her wrath upon Trinity's keeper with some of Rimmy Tim's help.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This gets a little dark, so be prepared. Thanks for reading!

It’s the middle of the night on a Wednesday that Abbi wakes up to some rustling throughout the house.  She stares at the ceiling for a moment before it registers in her brain that there’s some talking going through the vent.  She recognizes the general sound of Trinity’s voice, so she gets up out of her bed.  Checking the guest bedroom – which they had started decorating and had put a sign up on that had her name on it – she finds that Trinity’s not in there, so she heads down to the living room.  Sighing when she doesn’t see her, she realizes that the young girl is probably downstairs in the basement.

Pulling her sweater that she had put on after she gotten out of bed tighter around herself, she walks down the stairs.  Her eyebrows shoot up when she sees Trevor, Matt, and Trinity standing over the computer down there.  “What are you guys doing here?”  The three turn to look at her with wide eyes.

“We’re doing some research on some odd activity,” Trinity explains, tucking her brown hair behind her ears.

“Why would you do that here?  Do that at the library or something that they can’t trace here,” Abbi sighs and rubs her eyes.  “And what are you fuckers doing here at fucking midnight?”

“Trinity called, said she wanted our help,” Matt answers, and Abbi looks at Trinity.

The young girl says, “Was down here watching Stranger Things and running some tests.  Caught some weird activity for that bank you said you saw the Randoms’ symbol at.  We were doing research on it.”

Abbi had seen a random resurgence of the Randoms’ symbol.  It had been only three banks, but she had caught them.  She knew where to look and what to look for.  If she hadn’t have left some of those symbols on walls back in the day, there was no way she would have noticed it.

“So, we’re worrying about that at _midnight_?”  She goes to scold them further, but Jeremy comes down the stairs before she can.

“So I got Gatorade, vanilla puddings, and Nutella . . .”  Jeremy trails off as he looks up from the grocery bag and sees Abbi looking drowsily at the four of them.  “Hi?”

“Why do I put up with any of you?” she mutters.

Jeremy decides to answer, “Because I can leave this here for these idiots and we can go talk to that Jamarcus guy.”  Abbi thinks for a moment before glancing back at Trinity, who was back to being hunched over the computer with Matt and Trevor.  She takes a deep breath and looks back at him.

“Yeah, let’s blow this joint.”  Jeremy grins and gets up the stairs while she goes to get changed.

Around three, they pull up to this warehouse looking place in her Ferrari and Jeremy grabs his bag of tools from his feet.  Abbi pops the trunk and Jeremy follows her to the back.  His eyebrows shoot up when she pulls the trunk up and reveals a ton of different torture tools.  “Holy . . .  Why the fuck . . .”

“Lots of reasons, Lil’ J.  I’ve had more than a few fucks that have hurt the people I love.  Especially Alex,” she admits, grabbing the duffel bag to the side and filling it up with a bunch of different tools she can use.

“What happened with Alex?”  Abbi raises her eyebrows at him in an inquisitive way.  “Who hurt Alex?”

After she closes the trunk, she stares at it for a second.  Then she meets his brown eyes and tells him, “There are really bad people here in Los Santos, Jeremy.  People who are willing to commit the worst things to find pleasure in their pitiful lives.  What do you think is the worst thing that someone could possibly do to someone?”

Jeremy reaches into the deepest recesses of his mind to find something terrible, something he could never bring himself to do.  Then his heart drops and he answers, “Rape them and leave them alive.”  Abbi doesn’t even have to confirm it, she just looks back at her bag of tools.

“I didn’t . . .”  She pauses to sigh and shake her head at herself.  “I saved Trinity in time, I couldn’t save Alex.”  She looks up at the sky for a second and closes her eyes, tears brimming those green orbs.  “She knocked on my door in the middle of the night, back when I lived farther into the city.  It was raining that night, just like when we found Trinity.  She knocked on my door, and when I answered, she said that she was friends with Andy, the kid who had just run away to me because his parents were abusive assholes.  She said she needed my help and then she passed out.  I took her to a hospital and Alex wouldn’t let them tell anyone who had raped her.  I had it figured out though.  I had seen her living with, some jackass named Mosely.  Kidnapped him, spent months torturing him.  He somehow lived through it all.  So finally, I slit his throat and watched him bleed out.  That was the first time I ever watched someone die like that.  I went thirty-two years without watching someone die like that, but I did it for Alex.”

She opens her eyes and looks back at Jeremy.  He states, “I thought you had killed someone for Aren.”

She shrugs, “I did, but I didn’t watch him die.  I didn’t even have my eyes open when I pulled the trigger on my gun.  I don’t think I could have done it for Aren.  I saw so much of myself immediately in Alex, I don’t know why.  To this day, she’s nothing like me.  But I saw something in her; she was so strong for just being some sixteen year old girl.  That’s probably why Aren hates me to this day, because I didn’t have the courage to do what I did for Alex.  I don’t you could even call what I did courage, but it’s what I tell myself so I can sleep at night.”

“But you took revenge for Alex.  You did a good thing.  You protect those kids with your life,” Jeremy tries to reassure her.

Abbi scoffs, “I am a terrible person, J.  One person didn’t cover my brother years, and I spent most of my teenage years making that everyone in my old crew and then their families were dead.  I go on random killing sprees because it gives me a rush.  I can turn my emotions off like that-“ she snaps her finger “-so that I can murder people and not feel bad about it.  There is nothing I can do to remedy myself.  And the only thing that makes that worse is that I don’t regret a single thing.”  Then she pulls the Lone One’s mask on and walks inside. 

Jeremy takes a moment to consider all of what she’s just told him before walking inside.  He takes a deep breath as he shuts and locks the door behind him.

Over at Ryan’s home away from home, he sits on the couch and watches some shit television show that the small man sitting on the other side of the couch had put on.  “Oh, yeah, that _totally_ makes sense.  You look foolish,” Ray shouts at the screen playing some terrible crime show, and Ryan turns to smile at him.  Ray notices him and makes a face, “Sorry.”

“It’s fine.”  As Ryan stands up to replace his Diet Coke, he adds, “It’s _endearing_.”

Ray rolls his eyes, “Shut up.”  Ryan chuckles, going into the kitchen and grabbing a can from the refrigerator.  “So, how’s your girlfriend doing?”

“I don’t think we’re necessarily officially in a relationship yet, but she’s doing good.  She’s _really_ good.”  Ray makes a disgusted face at him, and he grins deviously.  “I bought her and Trinity breakfast the other day, and literally, I could not have found a better woman to be attracted to.”  Ray smiles and nods his head.  “The two were bantering the whole time, and Abbi is a really good mother.”

“I’m glad you’re happy with her, Ryan.  You should ask her to be your girlfriend, and then maybe your wife.”  Ryan chuckles and turns back to the show.

“I’ll have to tell her who I am before I can marry her, and I’m not sure she’ll ever want me after that.”  Ray purses his lips, grimacing at Ryan’s pessimistic thoughts.

Back at the warehouse, Jamarcus is struggling to break out of the handcuffs Trevor and Abbi had put on him when they had shoved him in there.  Jeremy is standing in the shadows watching the Lone One sit on a stool and just stare at the struggling man.  “No, please, no, don’t kill me.  I live under your regime.  I work for you, Lone One.  I can give you information on the Vagabond.”

She chuckles, “It seems that you have more than just a little of what I want.”  And even though Jeremy knows that her deep, modulated voice is not directed at him, he fears her a little at the sound of her chuckle.  “Let’s talk about the Vagabond first,” she decides, glancing over at where she had set her bag of goodies down.  “I’ll set up the rules of this . . . _game_ . . .  You answer my questions, you live.  You don’t answer my questions, you die.”  He nods his head.  “What do you know about the Vagabond?”

“He works with five other guys.  They’re all part of this Fake AH Crew.”  She rolls her eyes.

“Already knew that.”

“I know that he is planning something big for you guys.  He wants to really fuck you guys over this time.  Something you can’t come back from.”

Jeremy rolls his eyes, “Yeah, what the fuck is it, idiot?  We know that he doesn’t like us and that he wants us dead, so quit with the fucking suspense and be real.”  The Lone One glances back at him and lets out a little chuckle before turning back to Jamarcus.

The Lone One nods at him to answer, so he says, “I don’t know, there was some big thing about how he got near Abbi, the one with the kids.  You stomped him out or something, but he wants to take advantage of the fact that he knows where Abbi lives.”  Both Jeremy and Abbi frown.  “I don’t know if it’s that he wants to keep watch on her place or that he wants to kill her, but she’s your buddy.  You gotta tell her to watch out.”

Abbi quickly turns back into the Lone One as she asks, “Is that all you know?”

“That’s all I can gather from the whispers because most of us are living under your regime.  They don’t talk much to people like us because we’re on two different sides of a spectrum,” he explains.  Staring at him for a second, she decides that she believes it.

“Alright, well, why did you keep the girl for all this time?”

“Trinity?”  The Lone One nods her head.  He stops for a moment before saying, “Stan and Tom thought that she was pretty.  When we robbed and murdered her parents, they thought she was pretty and wanted to keep her around.”

“You’re sure you didn’t think she was pretty too, fucking pedo?” Jeremy growls.  The Lone One continues to stare at Jamarcus like she feels the same.

“I didn’t.  She just cleaned the house, did the shit I didn’t want to.  I’ll admit she was like a slave to me, but not one of those sexual ones.  That’s fucking nasty.”  The Lone One gets really emotionless all of the sudden, standing up and grabbing the stool and throwing it away from her.

“See, I guess I didn’t clarify enough.  You answer the questions right, I don’t hurt you.  You answer them wrong, I torture you.  You’re answering my questions fucking _wrong_.  What did I say happens?” she tells him.

He exclaims, “I’m not answering them wrong, please, I didn’t do anything to her!”  He starts crying as she steps toward him.  “I didn’t touch her!”

“But you thought she was _pretty_ , didn’t you?  You little shit!”

He answers, “Yes, I thought she was pretty.”  The Lone One with a small bit of Abbi lets out a loud snarl, turning away from her victim. 

She hadn’t felt like this in her whole life, since her brother died.  She had never felt so angry and so sad in the same moment.  Abbi was the one who felt sad, not the Lone One.  The Lone One was the angry one.  So, she quickly turns the sad off and lets the anger take over.

Pulling her mask off, she turns to Jeremy and commands, “Let’s start with his fingernails.  Once they’re all gone, we’ll go from there.”

Over at Ryan’s house, Ray and Ryan are racing in Mario Kart.  “No, you passed me, you fuck!” Ray shouts, and Ryan laughs.  The dark brunette laughs with him and tries to pass him again.  “Get out of here!”  Ryan gets into first, and Ray stays right behind him on second.

“You can’t do it, Ray.  You’re not going to beat me.”

Ray laughs even louder, “You suck, and you’re a liar.”  Ray passes him right at the end of the race and wins.  He turns and faces him, “Haha!  You little bitch!”  Ryan laughs and shakes his head.

“Alright, pick next game.  I’m going to get some more candy.”

After an hour at the warehouse, they pulled off all of his nails, including his filthy toenails, and cut some of his fingers off with a cigar cutter.  Now, they’re standing outside, Abbi’s scratching her wrists, and Jeremy’s vomiting onto the pavement.  “You know, if you didn’t want to do this, all you had to do was say,” Abbi states, tapping her foot wildly.

Once he’s done vomiting, he replies, “Yeah, I’m fine.  I can do it.  I’ve just never cut someone’s fingers off before.”

“We have to get the information we want from him.  We have to be cruel, not compassionate.  We’re not compassionate to rapists and pedophiles,” she explains.

“I get that, but I don’t spend my fucking time cutting people’s fingers off,” he shouts at her.

“Well, neither do I,” she says calmly, “I don’t fucking like this either, but we have to get shit done.”

“You sure you don’t?  You seem to have a thing for killing people,” Jeremy exclaims, and she looks down at him.  “You’re like itching to get back in there.  You’re _literally scratching that itch_.”  Abbi looks down at her wrist that she had been scratching the whole time.

“I used to smoke right before I would go somewhere and pull a heist or do robberies and stuff.  I stopped when it turned out that Andy had asthma.  I was addicted, and I’ve gotten over my addiction, but recently, the craving’s come back a lot stronger than before,” she explains, pulling her sleeve back over her wrist.  “So I guess you’re right.  The only way that I can ignore my addiction to smoking is to feed my addiction to killing.”

Jeremy frowns as he stands up straight.  “Well, I guess killing rapists and perverts is better than killing your lungs.  Well, let’s get back in there and finish this.”  They both run their fingers through their hair and walk inside.  Jeremy makes sure to close the door behind him quickly because of Jamarcus’ screams. 

Abbi exclaims, “Alright!  Alright!  We get it!  You lost some of your fingers, now shut up.”  He quiets down behind his gag as she kneels by her bag and goes through it.  “What are we going to do next, Tim?”

“Well, let’s think about what this fucker deserves.”  The Lone One looks over at Jeremy for a second before grabbing a knife out of her bag of goodies.

“We’re going to scalp the motherfucker and then cut his balls off,” she declares, and he starts screaming again.  “Oh, shut up.  You fucking hobknocker.”  She stands, and so does Jeremy from his own bag.

“How do you want to do this?  Do you want to yank his pants down and do both at the same time?”  She stares at the accused man before shaking her head.

 She answers, “No, we’re going to do it one at a time.  Do you want to do one?”  He shakes his head, and she nods her head.  “I’ll do it.”  She takes a deep breath before walking over to the man and tightening her grip on her knife.

Around three that morning, Jeremy and Abbi sit in her car right on the edge of the woods.  They had just buried Jamarcus’ body.  Jeremy’s staring at the road ahead of them that they have not yet driven onto, and Abbi is staring at her hands on the steering wheel.  “We just slit a man’s throat and watched him bleed out.  Not only did we do that, we took his fingernails and toenails off, proceeded to cut his fingers off, then scalped him, and cut his testicles off,” Jeremy rambles, and Abbi nods her head.  “What do we do from here?”

“We go home.  All we tell Trinity is that we killed him.  If you want to tell Matt and Trevor, you can.  But other than that, we can’t say a thing.”  Jeremy thinks over her words for a second before nodding his head.

She turns the engine over and pulls onto the road.  She speeds back to the house and then they sit there for a moment.  “Go inside.  Tell her that we killed him and that I’ll be back in the morning, that I’m over at Ryan’s.  Stay with her for the night, call me if you need anything.”  Jeremy nods, grabbing his bag of tools.

He gets out and she immediately speeds off.  He watches her car for a few moments before sprinting up to the porch.  He gets inside and shuts the door behind him, pressing his back against the door.  “Jeremy, what is wrong?  You are covered in blood.”  He looks up and sees Matt standing in the doorway.

“We tortured him, Matt.  We took his nails, then some of his fingers, then his scalp, and then his testicles.  Then she took a screwdriver to his throat and we watched him bleed out,” he admits, rubbing his blood covered hands over his face.  Matt walks over to him and holds him as he starts crying.

“You gotta go take a shower.  Where’s Abbi?”

“She’s going over to her boyfriend’s to clear her head.  What are we going to tell Trinity?”

Matt shakes his head, “We’re leaving that to Abbi.  That’s her job, not ours, Jeremy.  You need to shower and sleep, J.”

“I don’t know if I can, Matt.  I don’t know if I can get that sight out of my head,” he confesses, and Matt holds him closer. 

Trevor calls from the basement, “Hey, we’re coming up with some new info.  Are you good?”

Matt frowns, “Let’s go to Abbi’s bedroom.”  He gently moves Jeremy onto the stairs going up so that Trinity can’t see Jeremy.  He calls to Trevor, “Yeah, we’re going upstairs to Abbi’s bathroom.” 

“Alright, we’re going to stay down in the living room until you give us the go,” Trevor calls back.

While Matt is making sure that Jeremy is free of all the blood, Abbi stops at a gas station to wash up and then she goes to Ryan’s.  She gets there at three thirty and finds that there’s lights on in the living room, so she lets the nerves leave her.  She walks up onto the porch and knocks on the door.  She shivers while she listens to Ryan walk toward the door.

He pulls the door open and she smiles at him.  “Hey, what are you doing here?” he asks with a big smile on his face.

“I was wondering if I could spend the night.  I know it’s random and I’m kind of springing it on you, but I just wanted to be near you,” she explains.  He glances over his back.

“Are you alright if . . .”  He pauses to look back at her.  “Ray is here?”

“Yeah, I just didn’t want to be alone.”  He nods and lets her inside. 

He touches her hands and realizes how cold she is.  “Holy shit, you’re freezing.”  While he’s worrying about how cold she is, Ray listens to them for a moment before slipping out of the back door.

They go into the living room so that she can say hello to Ray, but they find that he’s not there.  “I guess not.  He must just want to be on his own for tonight.”

She grimaces, “I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to send him out.”

Ryan smiles gently and shakes his head, “It’s fine, Abigail.  He likes to be on his own.  That’s Ray’s whole thing.  He’ll be okay.  We spend time together like we do because he claims that other than Michael, I’m the only one who gets him.  And Michael’s with Gavin.  So we’re the R-n-R Connection.”

Abbi starts giggling when she hears their name.  “That’s cute, R-n-R?”

He rolls his eyes, “Shut up, Abigail.  I’m sure you have some dumb name for you and Andy.”  Abigail opens her mouth to defend herself, but finds that she can’t.  He starts laughing, “Yeah, haha!  What’s your team name?”

“We’re Team Acatamathesia,” she explains, shrugging her shoulders.  He narrows his eyes, and she states, “It’s the inability to understand data presented to the senses.  Andy named us that because he said that we were too cool for people to actually sense us.”  She looks at how his facial expression doesn’t change.  “You know what, just shut up, don’t look at me,” she says, shaking her head and pulling away from him.  He bursts out laughing and follows her to his bedroom.

Once she’s dressed in some of his pajamas and they’re back in the living room, Abigail’s lying on top of Ryan as they watch some crappy horror movie.  “God, this movie is trash,” she chuckles, and he laughs.

“It really is.”  They’re quiet for another few moments before he speaks up again, “So Ray and I were talking.  And we were talking about how you and I aren’t really . . .”  He goes quiet because he can’t find the words to explain what he’s talking about.

She smiles because she can feel his heart beating so fast.  So she says, “You know what?  Let’s solve this.  Be my boyfriend?”  He smiles and nods his head, kissing hers.

“Yeah, yeah.”


	16. Dark Memories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Abbi sees someone she used to know.

Abbi makes sure that she’s in the kitchen making breakfast for Trinity when she wakes up the next morning.  Ryan’s on the couch already asleep again.  Abbi doesn’t blame him for not having the ability to keep up with her.  Almost no one can.  She’s aware that she’s not a great sleeper, is up far more than she is down.  It’s a habit she’s adapted from years of always being alert and looking over her shoulder.  As she gets older, it leaves her, but it still affects her deeply.

“Hey, I thought you would be gone?”  Abbi turns and looks at the young girl over her shoulder.  She’s wearing a pair of Abbi’s pajama pants and a t-shirt that looked like it was Jeremy’s.  She was obviously making herself comfortable in her new home.

“Uh, no, wanted to be home in time to make breakfast for you.”  Trinity hums, coming over to look at what she’s cooking. 

“Oh, are those cheesy eggs?  And sausages?” Trinity asks excitedly.  Abbi chuckles and nods her head.  “So we found some more information about the symbol in the bank.”

Abbi looks down at the young girl as she serves the food up onto a paper plate.  “Let’s not talk about this when Ryan is just in the other room, okay?”  And just to accentuate her request, a snore comes from the living room.  Trinity chuckles and Abbi smiles, handing the paper plate and plastic fork to the teenaged girl.  “If you’re going to watch something on the TV, keep it down because he’s sleeping.” 

“Why isn’t he up in your bed?”

“Because when we got here, Jeremy, Matt, and Trevor were still in my room.  Plus my gear was laying out,” Abbi replies, brushing her messy blond hair out of her face.  “Speaking of my gear, I’m going to take care of that and then hopefully get him up there.”  Trinity nods while she goes into the living room and Abbi goes upstairs.

Trinity turns YouTube on the PS4 on so that she can watch some Game Grumps episodes.  She gets through the Wheel of Fortune episode with Finn Wolfhard giggling quietly, but then the Mickey Mousecapade episode comes on and she really can’t help it.  While she can faintly hear Abbi vacuuming upstairs, it’s her squeals that wake Ryan up.

“Hey, Trinity.”

She stops laughing and looks over at him, “Hey, Ryan.  Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you up.”

He closes his eyes and hums, “It’s alright.  I should probably be up anyway.  Where’s Abigail?”

“She’s upstairs cleaning her room so you can go sleep in there.”  Ryan hums again before quickly falling asleep again.  Trinity chuckles and goes back to her video.

After another fifteen minutes, Abbi comes back down with her messy hair in a bun.  “Is he still dead?” she asks, coming into the living room and standing over Ryan.

“Yeah, he was awake for like a minute and then fell asleep again.”  Abbi chuckles and bumps her knee against his shoulder.  He groans and rolls over.

“Ryan.”

He doesn’t open his eyes and just murmurs, “Hush, I’m sleeping.”  Trinity bursts out laughing, and Abbi rolls her eyes while Ryan just smiles.

“James, get up and go to my bed.  There’s memory foam and it’s a California King,” Abbi states.

“Dude, best fucking bed I’ve ever slept in,” Trinity giggles.  Both Abbi and Ryan laugh and then Abbi realizes what Trinity had said.

“Hey, language.”

Ryan chuckles, “At breakfast the other day, you were swearing up a storm.  And we live in Los Santos.  When you get that private tutor you’re talking about, it’s not like he won’t swear at all.”  Abbi rolls her eyes but doesn’t argue.  “Alright, I have to get up.”

“Are you gonna go to my room?”

“Well, will it upset you if I don’t?”  Abbi shakes her head, so he just sits up and she sits beside him. 

“Why don’t you turn on a video game or something?  I’m sure I’ve got several of the games that you watch the Game Grumps play,” Abbi requests, and Trinity gets up to do so.  “Also, next week, you’re going to start school again with a private tutor named Martin.  He’s apparently really intelligent.”

Trinity turns back to face the two adults and makes a disgusted face.  She inquires, “Do I have to?”  Ryan chuckles while Abbi raises her eyebrows.

“Yes, it’s going to be great for you.  You’ll learn all the stuff you missed out on and if this guy is as intelligent as everyone says he is, you’ll learn so much.”  Trinity sighs and turns back to the entertainment set up.  Abbi just smiles and shakes her head at the lack of motivation the teenager had.  It reminded Abbi of all of her other kids.  It really didn’t surprise her at all.

“You know, I’m going to be really honest,” Ryan starts, and both Abbi and Trinity turn to him.  “I did not finish school.  I think it’d be wise for to try and finish.  You’ll find a lot of opportunities to get out of Los Santos if you take the time to finish school.”  Abbi smiles and nods her head while Trinity listens.  She doesn’t really acknowledge it, just turns back to the entertainment center to move certain cords around.

They don’t really talk about it any further than that, just because Trinity doesn’t want to talk about it.  Around noon time, Ryan has Michael and Gavin pick him up to take him to work, and Abbi gives him a sweet kiss before he leaves.  As soon as she sees Michael’s car pull out of the driveway, she turns to Trinity.

“What information did you get?”  Trinity grins and leads Abbi down to the basement.  “And where’d you get the two extra computers?”

As the young girl sits at one of the computers and pulls up the information she needs, she answers, “When I told Trevor what I wanted to do, he and Matt brought their computers with them.”  Abbi chuckles, shaking her head and grabbing another chair to sit beside Trinity.  “So basically, we went through their security footage because it was incredibly easy to get through all of their coding.”

The blond tilts her head to the left and questions, “You know coding?”

The brunette nods her head, “Yep, you can gather stuff from all over the internet and once you get the basics, it’s pretty easy.  Anyway, we went through their security footage and only found like one thing suspicious.”  Trinity starts playing the security footage, and Abbi watches it.

At first, it’s just footage of the area around the ATM in the bank.  Then a man with grayish strawberry blond hair walks up to the machine.  Abbi frowns because something looks oddly family about him.  He presses a few buttons on the machine before looking around and pulling something out of his pocket.  Abbi and Trinity watch him stick this little device into the machine and then pull what looks like a stamp out of his other pocket.  While the device is doing what it’s obviously made for to the machine, the man presses the stamp into the wall in an insignificant place.  Then he puts the stamp away and looks up at the camera.  Abbi stops breathing as she sees the incredible resemblance this man has to her brother.  He wiggles his fingers at the security camera and winks before looking back down at the ATM and pulling the device from it.  He walks away and leaves no other evidence.

Trinity pauses the footage while Abbi tries to process what she just saw.  “I don’t know who that is, but obviously he has something to do with the Randoms,” the young girl deduces, and Abbi hums.

“Just don’t mess around with it, okay?  I need time to think about what I’m going to do about it,” she requests, standing and pushing the computer chair back to where it was.  Trinity looks up at her, nodding her head with her innocent green eyes.  “Come upstairs and get ready.  We gotta head over to the garage for at least part of the day.”

Nothing too exciting happens until late that night when Abbi’s sleeping in her bed and Trinity is sleeping in hers.  Abbi’s lying there and at first, she doesn’t dream of much, too exhausted for anything to come to mind.  Then a memory comes back to her in form of dream.

_“Why can’t you just do something right?”  Abbi looks up at her brother with tears streaming down her face.  “Get off your ass.  You’re still not good enough to rest.”  She pushes herself up, holding her injured left wrist to her chest.  “Come on, come at me.”  She takes a deep breath and pushes the pain in her wrist to the back of her mind.  Squaring her narrow shoulders and stopping her crying, she pulls the knife she had hidden in the back of her pants out with her right hand and goes at him with it._

_His green eyes widen in shock and he steps back to avoid the knife.  She screams and jumps at him, going to stab him in the shoulder.  He grabs her right wrist and grabs it tight.  She brings her knee up to his groin, and he stumbles a little.  “You little bitch.”  Pulling her wrist away from him, she positions herself in a defensive stance._

_But her brother has always been faster.  He pulls a quick punch to her cheek and knocks her back.  Her grip loosens on the knife, and he takes it from her as she falls to the ground.  “You’re really going to come at me with a knife?!”  She glares at him.  “I’m the only thing keeping you alive!  Little bitch!”  The last thing she sees is his foot coming at her face._

Abbi flinches and wakes herself up.  She looks around her dark room and tries to remember where she is.  Once she realizes she’s in her bedroom, she feels the dryness of her throat and stands.  Instinctively holding her left wrist to her chest, she walks to the kitchen and grabs a glass from the cabinet above the sink.  She doesn’t even realize that she’s only using her right hand to fill up the cup and drink it until she feels its violent tremors against her chest.  She sets the glass of water down and grabs her left wrist, willing it to stop shaking.

She hadn’t had a nightmare like that in a long time.  She hadn’t had one that was just a past memory since she was twenty-two.  Ever since she took on the Lone One, there hadn’t been an issue.  She knew it had to be because of the man in the security footage.  There was really no other explanation.

“Abbi?”  She turns and looks at the young girl standing in the doorway.

“Alex.”  The young girl stares at her for a second before shaking her head.

“No, it’s me, it’s Trinity.”  Abbi closes her eyes for a second and remembers where she is.

Then she opens them and replies, “Sorry.  I’m just out of it.  What are you doing up?”

Trinity comes closer to her and answers, “Heard you moving around.  I just wanted to see what was up.  Is everything alright?”

“Yeah, just had a nightmare.  Why don’t you go back to bed?  I’ll be going back in a minute anyway.”  Trinity nods her head but still comes to hug Abbi.  Abbi hugs her back.

“Your arm is shaking.”  Abbi pulls away from the girl and looks at her left wrist.

“Yeah, it’s just because of the weather.  Head on up to bed.”  Trinity nods and leaves her alone. 

Abbi stands there for a moment before turning on the cold water and running her wrist under it.  It almost immediately stills, so she turns off the water and heads back to her room.  Before she goes back to sleep, she sends a text to Lindsay.

**From Abbi:  Hey, you free tomorrow?  I need your help with some things.**


	17. Once in a Lifetime Occurrence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Abbi and Ryan deal with somebody from her past.

“So what?  You’re telling me that this guy is your brother?” Meg asks as she sits in the planning room behind the back office with Lindsay and Abbi.  The three of them are watching the security footage that Matt and Trinity had found on Abbi’s laptop, and Abbi’s explaining to them her thought process while they watch the video.

“It might be.  I mean, look at this picture of him and compare it to the security footage,” Abbi replies, holding the photo she had of her brother from her shed at home up.  Meg gives her a doubtful look while Lindsay studies the picture and then the frozen image on the screen.  “Tell me it doesn’t at least have the slightest of resemblance to him.”

Meg sighs and then says, “They do look like each other, but Abbi, I just saw someone else who looked exactly like you the other day.  It could really just be a coincidence.”

“Then why does it look like he’s doing the same thing to the ATM that my brother and I used to do to the bankers?  That is one of the weirdest coincidences I have ever experienced,” Abbi tells her.  Meg continues giving her the same doubtful look while Lindsay zooms in on the image on the laptop.  “What are you looking at?” Abbi asks, and Meg turns to look at what Lindsay’s doing.

“I want to see what he’s doing on this ATM.  It does look like he’s pulling information from it like you and your brother used to do.  But this might just be some guy looking to cause the cops some trouble in the Randoms’ name.  I do want to get my hands on that program he’s using,” Lindsay explains and takes a screenshot of the frozen image.  She turns to Abbi, “I’ll give you a USB stick with the program to copy the program from the ATM, and then another one to delete it.  If I do it correctly, all you will have to do is get in there, put it in the machine, put in a code, and wait for my programs to run.”  Abbi nods her head while Trinity peeks her head into the planning room.

“What’s up, kid?”

Trinity informs Abbi, “Um, Jarius is out front with some guy named Zeke.  Said you would know what to do.”  Abbi sighs and stands up.

“Alright, would you excuse me?”  Meg and Lindsay hum as Abbi walks out of the room.

Meg asks Trinity, “How are things going, kiddo?”  Trinity shrugs as she sits across the table.

“Fine.  I’m about to start school.  In like three days I think.  I really don’t want to, but Abbi and Ryan say it will be good for me.  I’m trusting them since right now, they’re like my mom and dad.”

Lindsay smiles at her, “You think that you’ll be able to think they’re your mom and dad?”  Trinity gives a shrug.  “I think that Abbi will be a great influence on you and I don’t know about Ryan, but from what I’ve heard about him, he’ll probably be great too.  You just have to make the effort to show that you want to be taken care of, and they’ll take care of you.”

Trinity hums, grabbing the laptop and looking at the image.  “She thinks this is her brother, wants to make contact with him or some shit.  I don’t know why she would want to.  Andy tells me that he’s a huge asshole that was super abusive.”  Meg chuckles and nods her head in agreeance.

After an awkward moment, Abbi walks back into the room.  “Sorry, this asshole came in with a gun.  I had to get him out.”  She sits back down.  “So can we do something about this thing that he put in the ATM?”  Meg and Lindsay nod while Trinity spins in her chair and grabs one of the knives off of the wall.  Abbi watches her out of the corner of her eye as she finishes her conversation with Meg and Lindsay.

While she’s finishing her conversation with the two women, Ryan walks into the front office, causing the bell above the door to ring.  Jarius looks up at him and smiles.  “Hey, man, how are you?” he greets, and Ryan smiles back.

“I’m doing alright.  How are you?”

“Just doing my job to get by,” he answers, gathering some paperwork on his desk.  “So what can I help you with?”

Ryan replies, “I’m just looking for Abigail.  Is she around?”

“Uh, yeah, she’s just in an important meeting with some regular customers of ours.  Just hang out here or in the break room until she comes out,” Jarius tells him before returning to his paperwork.

“Thank you,” Ryan murmurs before sitting down on one of the wood benches and pulling his phone out.  Almost immediately after pulling his phone out, it vibrates.  He sighs and checks the crew group chat.

“Who nicked the tea?” Gavin had texted.

“Ray,” Jack and Michael text back in unison.  Ryan just raises his eyebrows and clicks out of his texting app, instead going to his Los Santos News app to see what was going on in the city today.  The first thing that pops up is an article about several accusations recently made against the Los Santos Bank.  He reads through it and finds that people are accusing the bank of stealing their money.  He frowns in confusion because Geoff, Jack, and Michael keep their money there.

He’s broken from his reverie as two women come from the garage and smile at Jarius.  The short one with brunette hair – he recognizes her from Gavin’s background on his phone and as Meg Turney – winks at Jarius and the tall, unnaturally blonde one gives Jarius a fist-bump.  “See you later, J,” the blonde says while the brunette smiles at Ryan.  The two women walk out and Jarius peeks into the garage.  He lets out a little hum before looking back at the desk.  The phone rings, so he answers it while Abbi starts yelling some pop song at the top of her lungs.

Ryan laughs while Maybelle shouts, “Shut the fuck up.” 

This instance causes Jarius to excuse himself on the phone call, press the receiver into his shoulder, turn toward the garage, and call, “Hey, I’m on the phone with a customer, shut up!”  Ryan chuckles while Trinity walks into the front room with a can of Diet Coke in her hand.  Jarius just nods at her before getting back to his phone call.  She sighs and turns, her eyebrows shooting up when she sees Ryan.

“What’s up, fucker?”  Ryan just chuckles as she sits down next to him.  “You like Diet Coke, right?”  He nods and she hands it to him.  “There you go.  I’m not a fan of it.  Had a sip of it for the first time the other day and gagged.”  Ryan chuckles while he opens it and takes a sip.

Abbi comes into the room giving Jarius a chastising face, but he just ignores her.  Then she turns and notices Ryan sitting beside Trinity.  “Oh, hey, I didn’t know you were coming in today.” 

Trinity scoffs playfully and says, “He’s got a huge infatuation with you.  He comes here more often than not to fucking gawk at you.  You just have to expect it at every moment.”  Both Abbi and Ryan give her confused looks.

“What’s with you, you idiot?” Ryan replies, treating her just like she’s been treating him.

“You guys are old and think I should go back to school.  All I remember about school is it sucking hardcore.  I’m not going back just for you guys to gain some _weird pleasure_ for it.”  Ryan chuckles at her misdirection while Abbi pinches the bridge of her nose.

Speaking into her hand, the older woman states, “Not at all is it for our pleasure, Trinity Angel.  It is for you to learn and have the experiences of a normal teenager.  Now stop being a little shit for no reason.”  Trinity rolls her eyes but hums, leaning back in her chair while Abbi just smiles and looks at Ryan.  “Now how can I help you?”

“I was wondering if you wanted to go out to lunch today.  There’s that Cuban place near Target in the city.”  Abbi smiles and nods, immediately recognizing the place from when she and Trevor went for her mask.

Trinity exclaims, “Can I go?”  Ryan stands and shakes his head at Abbi while Trinity looks up at her hopefully. 

“Honey, I’d love to take you with us, but we’re going somewhere that isn’t safe for you . . .  Or anyone in here.  Until I teach you how to shoot, you can’t go with us to places like that,” Abbi explains, tucking her hair behind her ears.

“When are you going to teach me how to shoot?”  Ryan chuckles, and Abbi just puts her hands on her hips.

“I’ll start teaching you on Saturday, alright?”  Then she turns to Jarius and requests, “Hey, keep an eye on her while I’m gone.  I don’t need her to go missing or something.”  Though Jarius hasn’t finished his phone call, he nods his head, and Abbi gives him finger guns.

“Can I play on your laptop then?”  Abbi looks down at Trinity and nods.  The teenage immediately runs through the garage to the back office.  Abbi chuckles and shakes her head.

“She is exactly as I’d expect you to be as a teenager,” Ryan jokes while Abbi grabs her jacket from the coat hanger and pulls it on.

“She’s reaching there.  Alright, are we ready to go?”  Ryan nods and as they walk out of the garage, hand in hand.  They head over to the Cuban restaurant and Abbi keeps her guns on her as they walk inside.  The place is bustling with people that Abbi recognizes as criminals who have come to her for help on their cars, and some of them greet her.  Ryan stares at her in shock the whole time she’s shaking hands and waving at people.

“You know these guys?” he whispers to her while they wait in line to get to the front counter.

“I fix cars for people who aren’t always inside of the law.  Why do you think I didn’t ask questions about your bullet holes?”  Ryan’s blue eyes widen while they move forward and Abbi starts ordering what she wants.  He can only think on it a moment before it’s his turn to order.  As soon as he’s done, she pays for it and they sit and wait.

“So . . .”  She looks at him.  “Does Trinity know about who your business is for?” he asks, and she smiles like she knows something he doesn’t. 

“She does.”

“Does she know that the Lone One killed the guys she was staying with before you picked her up?”  That makes her grin so deviously.

“Yes, and she was grateful because they were under the impression that she was a slave.  The real question is how do you know?”

He shrugs, “Obituaries are public records.  Plus, I have some buddies who are cops.  When we meet up, they sometimes feel the need to rant.  They get sick of the Lone One pretty often.”  She just chuckles, and then an older woman comes out of the kitchen with their sandwiches. 

“My dear, how long has it been since you’ve been in?” the woman says in a rough British accent, much less posh than Gavin’s.

As she places their drinks down and then their sandwiches, Abbi replies, “It’s been at least two months since Trey and I came in.  I just haven’t had time to come around and visit.  Working for my family and protecting them, ya know?”

“Yes, my dear, I do.  How are the kids doing?”

“They’re doing just fine, Elizabeth.  Since the last time I came in, I’ve gotten a new one.  Her name’s Trinity.  She’s rather stubborn and vulgar.  Ryan here can tell you,” Abbi tells her.  When the old woman smiles, Ryan sees that she’s missing a few teeth.

“Takes after you, I suppose.  You always were shouting vulgarities around my old husband.”

Abbi chuckles, “He was sexist, Elizabeth.  Thought a woman should keep her mouth shut unless it was to agree with a man’s opinion.”  The woman just chuckles with her before kissing her head and going back into the kitchen.  “I lived with Elizabeth from when I was thirteen to when I was eighteen.  She helped me buy the garage.  When she retires, I plan on moving her in somewhere nice with a young man to take care of her.”

“She was the ‘Abigail’ to your ‘Trinity’, hmm?” Ryan responds while she takes a large bite of her sandwich.  As she chews, she nods and he takes a bite of his.

When she gets her mouth clear, she explains, “Except her daughter was a friend of mine when I was actually in school.  We went to elementary school together and then when my brother and I went out on our own, she passed from cancer.  When my brother died, Elizabeth was the closest thing I had to a support system, so I went knocking on her door.  I loved her, absolutely hated her husband.  Her husband fell into a deathly depression after their daughter’s death and I was there for only two years before he committed suicide.”

“I’m sorry to hear for both of your losses.”

“Like I said, he was sexist.  He kept Elizabeth back from what she could have been doing.  She had a small cry and then got over it.  She understood what most cannot; we all die in the end.”  Ryan stares at his lover in disturbance.

Her revelation causes him to ask, “Are you afraid of dying?”

She shrugs, “You live in Los Santos and have no one outside of it to go to, you can’t be.”  He frowns but says nothing, continuing to eat.  “My children . . . I’m sure they are all afraid.  I wish I could send them all away, to somewhere better.  But I’m selfish, and I want the closest thing I have to a family with me.”  

“Do you think you could ever be selfless for them?”  Abbi takes another bite of her sandwich and nods again.

“Yes, I think I could.  I suppose one day, I’ll send them off.  Because I’ll send them away and let them be away and they’ll stay away and never return.  I love them, but they really aren’t mine.”  Ryan frowns deep.

“Would you ever send me away?”

She tilts her head from one side to the other before telling him, “I would, to keep you safe.  Just like I would do to them.”

“What would you be . . .”

He’s cut off by a huge explosion in the front of the restaurant that throws them onto the floor.  Both of their ears ring obnoxiously, and Ryan has to take a moment to blink his eyes and look through all of the smoke.  Then some red liquid comes down onto his eyes and he realizes that his head is bleeding from where he smacked it on the floor.  He looks around to find Abigail and sees her pulling herself up using the counter separating the dining area from the kitchen.  “Abigail,” he slurs out while she speaks to someone in the kitchen even though he can’t hear her.  Then she turns to him, grabs his arm, and pulls him up off of the floor.

“. . . You’re bleeding from your head, James.  I’ll get you to the hospital after this.  You got your gun on you?” she asks, quickly leading him into the kitchen.  He just shakes her head while Elizabeth meets them halfway through the kitchen.  “Damn it, James, you’re supposed to help me out here.  Alright, Elizabeth is going to take you.”

“No, I have to help you.”

She gently grabs his chin and makes sure he’s looking at her, saying, “James, your head is bleeding.”

“I’m fine, give me a gun.  I’ll still be able to shoot.”  She stares at him for a second before nodding at Elizabeth, who runs off.  Then Abigail pulls him down behind the counter and pulls both of her pistols from her vertical shoulder holster. 

“Here, take this,” she whispers, handing him one of the pistols.  They check the clips on the gun as most of the other patrons run out of the place.

“I heard the Lone One visits here!  Is that true?!”  Abigail and Ryan look at each other with wide eyes at the sound of a rough, angry voice.

“Am I really going to defend the Lone One?” Ryan asks her very quietly while she tries to get an audible clue as to where this guy is inside the restaurant.

“Listen, we’re defending this establishment.  I’m not asking you to defend the Lone One, I’m asking you to defend the people inside this restaurant,” Abigail replies, even more quietly.  Ryan sighs and nods his head.

“DOES THE LONE ONE COME HERE?!”

Abigail shouts back, “They don’t come around here anymore.  You’ve come too late.  You should leave!”  Ryan takes a deep breath and grabs Abigail’s hand.

“Who are you?  Where are you?”  Abigail goes to stand up, and Ryan shakes his head at her.  She holds her finger up to her lips while she stands and holds her gun behind her back.  “Robertson?”  Abigail looks at the man and stares at the man she just can’t recognize.

“I don’t . . .  Do we know each other?”

The man holds his hands to his chest, a gun in one of them, steps forward, and says, “It’s me, Evans.”  She tilts her head to the side and shakes it.  “You and I, we worked together for a job right after you turned 21.  You were one of the easiest people to work with, because you know what you were doing.”  Her heart stops as she recognizes who he is exactly.

_She sits in his car with tinted windows and pulls her ski mask down over her face.  “Are you ready?” Evans asks while he pulls his own mask over his face.  She hums, checking the clip in her gun before cocking it.  “We get in, you threaten them while I grab the money, then we’re out.”  She nods and he counts down from five.  Then they jump out of the car and run into the bank.  Immediately he’s aiming his gun at people while trying to hurry to the back where the money is._

_In a deep voice so that no one will recognize her, she says, “Just go.  I’ve got this.”  He nods and runs off while she fires her gun into the air.  Everyone screams and gets down.  “Stay down, and you won’t get hurt.  Be rebellious, and I kill you,” she says loudly enough that everyone will hear._

“You shouldn’t be here, you need to go,” Abbi demands, pointing her gun at him.  He stares at her in shock.

“Robertson, what’s up with you?”

She swallows thickly and opens her mouth to repeat her demand, but before she can, Ryan stands and confidently points his gun at Evans, saying, “You heard the lady.  You need to leave.”  Evans looks at Ryan for a second, then Abbi.

“So you’re shacking up with _Ryan Haywood_?”  Both Ryan and Abbi grimace.  “You know, he’s rumored to be the Vagabond.”

Abbi just chuckles, “And I’m rumored to be most people’s deaths.  Let’s figure out which rumor is true.”  Then she shoots and kills him with a bullet to his head.  Ryan stares as Evans’ body crumbles for a moment before turning to face Abbi.

“Are you alright?” he asks, worried that she’ll be upset from the sight of a dead man.

“I probably should not have done that, but he was threatening you and me,” she replies, looking up at Ryan.  Ryan tilts his head and shrugs.

“Then, he probably needed to go, didn’t he?”  They both look back to the body. 

“By the way, that was an once-in-a-lifetime occurrence.  It will never happen again.”  He gives her a look of surprise while she calls, “Elizabeth, you guys can come out!”  Then she grabs his hand and drags him out of the restaurant, sprinting quickly.  He follows closely behind her, easily keeping up her pace.  They get to his car and jump inside.  He immediately starts the engine and speeds off.

It’s silent until Abbi realizes something.  “You’re bleeding from your head, why the fuck are you driving?”  Ryan just shrugs.

“I’m fine.  I just banged my head a little.  Nothing I haven’t dealt with before.”

She gives him a look and says, “That makes me so worried.  We have to get to the hospital, Ryan.”  That makes him shake his head.

“No, we can’t go to the hospital.  I don’t like hospitals, Abigail.”  She stares at him for a second before sighing.

“We’ll go to Alex then.  She can take care of this.”  Ryan drives them back to the garage and she leads him in through the back entrance.  They walk through the door that immediately leads into her office and find Trinity playing music with the volume all the way up.  “Turn that thing off,” Abbi instantly commands while she sits Ryan down in one of her chairs.  Trinity turns it off and Abbi goes out into the actual garage.

Trinity asks Ryan, “What the hell happened to you?”

Ryan shrugs, “Some punk came to the wrong place looking for the wrong people.”  Trinity nods her head in understanding as Alex and Abbi come back into the room.  Alex grabs a flashlight from under Abbi’s desk as Abbi grabs the first aid kit from one of the shelves.

“Alright, will you follow the light with your eyes?” Alex requests, turning the flashlight on and pointing into Ryan’s eyes.  She moves it around and he follows it.  She sees nothing of importance from that.  “Okay, I’m going to make your eyes are open so I can see.  Don’t move them.”  He does exactly as she asks while she pushes his eyelids open and shines a light into his eyes.  “There’s nothing from what I can see.  He’s fine,” she declares, turning the flashlight off and tossing it back to Trinity, who catches it easily.  “Let’s see how deep you cut your head, and we’ll go from there.”  Abbi watches her locate the cut and gently pull his hair out of the way to see it.  Then Alex turns back to Abbi and questions, “You still got the stitching gun in there?”

In unison, both Trinity and Ryan ask, “What?”  Abbi hands the stitching gun to Alex, and Ryan gets visibly panicky.

“No, I’m okay, you don’t need to do that.”

Alex just mutters, “Ryan, shut up.”  He squeezes his eyes shut as she presses it to his head and starts stitching it together.  After three, she hands the gun back to Abbi.  “Was that so hard?”

“Yes!”  Both Alex and Abbi roll their eyes and Abbi puts the kit back on the shelf.

“Next time, just go to a hospital.  They probably have the glue that dissolves.”  Ryan just glares at Alex as she walks out of the room.

Abbi asks him, “Are you good now?”  He just sighs and stands as she moves toward him.  “I care about you, okay?  I need you not to get hurt.  Don’t be a pussy and whine over that fact you had to get stitches.  Just be glad there was someone I knew that could do it, because I sure as hell can’t.”  He purses his lips angrily, and she just kisses them.  They stay there for a moment before she pulls away and says, “Let’s go get some lunch from a safer place, yeah?”  He nods and follows her out.

“Can I come?”

After lunch, Ryan, with a hat on his head, heads back to the penthouse where it’s just Gavin right now.  “Hey, Rye-bread.  How did lunch go?”

Ryan decides to not tell Gavin of the incident and instead says, “Hey, it was good.  Um, can you do me a favor?”  Gavin looks up from his laptop at him and waits expectantly.  “LSB just got accused of trying to take people’s money.  Figure what’s going on with that out.”


End file.
